


broken paradox

by TFALokiwriter



Category: Lost in Space (1998)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arguments, Bitterness, Bittersweet Ending, Bonding, Character Development, Court Room Drama, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, John Robinson bashing, Mention of Disney songs, Prison, Prison Escape, Retcon Timeline, Somewhat LiS TOS easter eggs if you can spot them, Stand Alone, boulder sized LiS easter eggs, older will robinson swears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 40,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23858986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFALokiwriter/pseuds/TFALokiwriter
Summary: What if John and Don didn't come? What if they never arrived to the alternate Jupiter 2? What if Smith changed his mind about what had to be done at the last moment? What if, a new paradox was made. One that was made to happen. One that was ensured to happen as a paradox fell through the portal and made another paradox happen. But it's cruel to them more than the one they came from and they wouldn't undo their sacrifice not for one moment more.
Kudos: 1





	1. A fallen son

The portal was now large enough to carry a large creature. The older being was quiet as he stared upon the portal giving it some careful thought as parts of his mad mind were speaking over the other, highly unlike the unison singing of ‘take us home’ as he rubbed his forehead quite annoyed. A part of him had little desire to eat the one boy that he had raised for decades and another part of him wanted to be rid of him. It was quite a conflicting storm of thoughts about the matter. The voices were speaking at once but they were coming to a lone voice of agreement. 

“Shrink the portal.”

Will looked up from the console.

“But, it is ready.” The younger man was surprised. “Something the matter?”

“It looks big enough for me.”

“Oh, okay.” Will shrugged then the portal shrunk with a few buttons.

“William, going back in time and preventing the death of your family. . . .” the monster quietly spoke. “They may not listen to you.”

Will slid up the dog tags.

“Not when I have this on me,” Will grinned.

The spider sighed, lowering his head, his shoulders lowering.

“What I mean to say is; they may ignore you and go to their fate.” Spider acknowledged.

Will paused, thinking it over, as he slipped the dog tags down giving it some thought.

“I have given some thought about it, old monster.” Will said. “I will force him to look at it.”

“And the others?” Spider lifted a brow ridge.

“They will be too surprised to do a thing.” Will said.

“If not? Do you have a back up plan?” His gaze was fixated on the younger man. “Your noble cause may be all for nothing and you will watch them go.”

“Yeah, but it will delay them by a hour.” Will said. “That is the back up plan.”

“Is a hour enough to convince the people of Mission Control?”

“It is.” Will nodded.

The older creature scowled, gripping the cold rail.

“I doubt that.” Spider admitted.

“They will take blood samples, Doctor Smith.” Will scowled then laughed with a shake of his head. “You are so cynical.”

“And rightly so. I watched a planet that I fought for _die_ slowly around me for decades and I was in denial that it was dying until I were forced to face the facts.” The older creature spoke with anger and bitterness in his voice. Will looked toward the older man, his head raised, over the warm orange glow of the console quite surprised to hear the older man talk of something that he never talked about. “We fought for the planet not to die and it died; _anyway_.”

The old creature shifted toward Will.

“And your family may not listen to you.” was the finishing comment.

Will shook his head with a smirk.

“But to a monster? No, they wouldn’t." The older monster's eyes flipped open then frowned back at the younger man. "They would try to kill you. You can’t go, either.”

“I wasn’t arguing that.” The older monster rolled his eyes with a shake of his hand.

"Then what are you arguing?" Will asked.

“I was going to suggest _someone_ else.” The long claws were gestured toward the machine that wheeled up the platform. “Our most loyal companion in our exile.” He glared upon the younger man. “Have some faith in me, William.”

“I have little faith in you given prior adventures that were ways to Earth. I always knew that you were going to try to weasel your way in.”

“At first, yes, I _did_ plan for that." the older spider admitted. "But plans have changed, send him.”

“Why?” Will lifted a brow.

“A machine is the most neutral member of any crew, my dear son." He looked upon the young human with fondness. "They report the facts.”

“If you didn’t sabotage it.”

The monster sighed then rolled his eyes. 

“Booby, report on the chain of events that stranded us here.” the quite old spider gestured toward the machine across from them. 

“Doctor Smith sneaked aboard the Jupiter 2, sabotaged my prior shell, and attempted to leave if it weren’t for Global Sedition stopping him." Will listened intently to what Robot was relaying. "He awoke the crew eight hours later during my rampage after having wounded himself, resuscitated Doctor Robinson, then was confined to a cell. Hours later we came across a spacecraft by the name of the Proteus.”

Spider winced in response to the reminder and shuddered as he closed his eyes shaking his head.

Will’s hands clasped into fists and his blood proceeded to boil at the reminder of what his father had lead his family into.

“Major West took Doctor Smith along with me being operated by Will Robinson in a group that consisted of Professor John Robinson, Professor Maureen Robinson, Doctor Judy Robinson, and Blarp the Blip. He was infected by a alien space spider as we fled the ship once finding the ship was abandoned and lifeless save for the lizard gorilla along with some star charts. We crashed through several time bubbles then on the planet---”

“And the rest is history.” Will finished.

“Affirmative.” Robot confirmed with a twirl of his helm. 

“You have a point, Doctor Smith.” Spider’s ridged brows rose up at once. “But, I am still going.”

Spider sighed, lowering his head, looking toward his gnarly black fingers.

“If you insist.” Spider turned away from the younger man with his back to him. “Go.”

“Not even a good bye?” Will lifted a brow.

“William . . ." The spider started, looking upon the younger man, with a small bitter smile. "our good-byes don’t have to be made until Doctor Smith is being sent to a super max."

"Really, that's how you think things are going to go even if the lone Robinson member stops the launch?"

"Yes." Spider admitted to the younger man. "Even if you insist or not that he faces no charges. . .”

Spider looked aside as a imaginary tale of woe, misery, and cold entered his mind and it was silent between them.

"By that point I would be future man solely responsible for the success of the mission." Will ended the silence. The comment reminded the taller beast who nodded at the optimistic idea that was more welcoming than his normally dark and cynical view of the world that in many ways applied to their little planet. "And they would have him on home arrest."

"That's house arrest." Spider corrected.

"And?" Will looked up toward the spider with both of his brows raised. "Old monster, I know you got a rebuttal."

“Your father may not pay attention to your younger self as you think he would on Alpha Prime A as he makes the hypergate."

The creature went on another tangent of conversation walking toward the stairs that lead down to the bottom of the ship with slow steps.

"You said so yourself; his entire attention was focused on the program." Spider shifted toward Will, his the dulled blue film over his eyes locking with the lone Robinson, bitterly. "How can we say that he won't do the same on the promised planet?"

Will was quiet for a solid moment during a moment of reflection.

“At least, my family will be alive.” Will said.

Will watched the old monster walk down the platform past the reconstructed rambler crane model with no more words to share with him. Will turned around. That was it. The last words that they would share in this dark and vicious timeline. He sighed looking upon the family, his hopes anew at the chance to grow up with his siblings, then Will leaped off the platform and crashed into the waiting portal with a "Woohooo!"

Then Robinsons fell on to the floor groaning in the elevator. Will got up to his feet and the professor was up on his feet as Will slid off the dog tag from around his neck. The professor stared at the man with a uncanny look about him, something familiar, so strikingly familiar. John stood up to his feet with his heart racing and his mind on high alert at the stranger standing for him. The man shoved it into his face.

“Look at grandfather's fucking war dog tags.”

“LANGUAGE, William!”

The roar drew their attention up and the Robinsons stared upon the odd alien.

“You’re talking like a sailor with that language.” Came the Spider’s remarks with the voice of the person that had given them all stress tests. Maureen covered her mouth with her hand gawking in shock at what was speaking. “I expected you to enter the past with better language!”

“Well, what would you call that stupid thing, Doctor Smith?”

“Your war reminder.” Was the calm yet alien-like reply belonging to the voice that had morphed and aged to it. “Mind your manners or you will lose your chance to prevent my presence from getting trapped aboard the Jupiter 2.”

The elevator paused once Don had smacked a button and looked up toward the portal as the monster wisely put words upon the younger man.

“I guess that is a fair enough point being taken at face value.”

“Be the professional Robinson that I _know_ you are.”

“I will!”

John was trembling as it clicked to place looking up toward someone that he recognized as his son but older, heartbroken, and tired.

“Men and women swear when it’s necessary.” Sparks erupted behind the older man as the area trembled and roars were being heard, the Jupiter 2 shook from side to side, as the older man proceeded to speak as though nothing was wrong. “Such as for pain." he looked aside over the loud shudder of the ship then his attention returned upon them. "Now, referring to your family heirloom as a sex object isn't quite manly of you.”

“I will remember that.” Will said with a small laugh in amusement. 

The older creature looked around as the pieces of the ship fell around him, frightened.

“The portal is destabilizing the planet.” The older creature replied. “There is not long.”

“Good-bye, old monster.” Will smiled, tearfully.

“Never be tearful, my dear boy." Spider said, fondly. "Smith is here.”

Bemusement was in the older creature’s voice as he looked down in contempt toward the younger man--- who he had raised by hand and protected with help from the machine that wheeled behind him coming to his side-- as fond memories came over him. The spider yanked out a glass disk then tossed it to the younger man through the portal. The young man caught the glass object as the helm lowered to the machine then looked up toward him.

“Robot’s sensor tape!” Will acknowledged.

“You need a old friend to navigate the past. I don’t need him anymore.”

Will looked up toward the portal with widened eyes as the portal proceeded to shrink before his eyes and portal was starting to shimmer away. Pieces of the ceiling fell as rock pierced through the floor panel. Smith looked around, irked at first, then the terror faded away replaced by a eerie calmness and resignation to his destiny.

“I won’t forget you!” Will called.

Spider's dulled blue eyes looked upon the young man.

“Neither will I.” The spider smiled down upon the younger man as a explosion erupted behind him.

The portal vanished over a loud crack then Will shifted toward John.

“Well, do you want your family to live or not, Professor Robinson?”

Will’s fond smile and happiness was replaced by a professional, weary, by cynical demeanor that had been marred by disappointments in his father.

“I do.” John said.

“Mission Control is searching for Smith right as we speak!” Don announced with a hand on his ear.

“Tell Mission Control the mission is delayed.”

“But, Professor!" Don exclaimed, staring at the professor as if he suddenly sprouted three heads. "This is the only time we can go!”

“There are _other_ times, Major.” John turned toward him with a dark look. “Tell the general to classify the official launch of the Jupiter."

Don's brows furrowed together as Will started to relax at the doorway of the elevator and the breath that he had been keeping in for so long was released.

"What do I tell him then?" Don asked.

"We have been stress tested so the only ones who can know is me and the general on the next launch." the professor hand waved the explanation. "This does reduce the chances of Global Sedition’s next attempt significantly.”

“Alright, alright, I will tell Mission Control.” Don was exasperated as he turned away. “Hey, Mission Control . . .”

Relieved, Will collapsed out of exhaustion falling into the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the story nagged at me with a single conversation between Will and Spider Smith as the starting point then arriving to the past in such a way that it was saying "We're replaying this scene until you write us." Like the scene that replayed of Smith itching his back in the film that nagged me to write a cruel kind of agony. Over and over and over and over and over. 
> 
> and I had to write a opening to the story to make sense of what had happened after writing that scene and editing it of what changed the outcome of what never happened in the film instead of Smith attacking Will, damaging the equipment, and the boy escaping decades before schedule as a 'the end is the beginning' (or the beginning is the end) time loop.


	2. rectifying errors

Will was resting on the bed, feeling weaker, tired, and unwell than he had for a long time, his mind reviewing over the portal wondering _what went wrong?_ as his mind struggled for a answer that couldn't be found. It was as if the effort of time traveling had crashed upon him suddenly even decades after he had started the effort. It was if he had been starving ever since he remotely thought of it as fixing the timeline. All the effort in keeping the machine running, operational, and finely tuned to the way that it was had finally struck him. 

His mind ran through, tiredly, of what was to be done. Two people part of Mission Control with the name Will Robinson running around Earth for the foreseeable future? No, it could not be done. His mind came to the definite answer that was quite reluctant to be done. It was a name of the past that he had once lived and fought for every day of his life. A name that represented the boy that he used to be, the child who was fighting to regain his family tooth and nail, a part of him that had died a long time ago the day that his family died.

Will's eyes opened as he felt something poured into his nose. He felt something in his nose, more precise, something cold and hard along his mouth, staring at what was a gray scenery. His eyes flashed open spotted open viewing a circular florescent light above his head. And he sighed, it was done. He was back among civilization and going forward instead of backwards. Then he saw several familiar figures loom over him.

"So, future man, how does it feel to be having your ass kicked by something you cannot control?" Penny asked. "Does it feel like you got everything in you kicked out? Does it feel like you haven't eaten in years? Does it feel like that you have been tired since for forever? Does it feel like you went through a totally unique, flashy, and alien portal that knocked the wind out of you?"

"Penny, he just awoke." Maureen warned. "He may not be in the mood to answer questions."

"Neither would I." Judy admitted.

"Good morning, older Will." John said, bemused.

"Hi, future me." His younger counterpart waved at him.

He squinted his eyes close then reopened them and smiled.

"Penelope, remember how my friends used to call me Billy?"

Penny paused then nodded.

"I do." Penny smiled as a memory crossed her mind then she frowned. "But, that was a affectionate nickname that you only let your older friends call you instead of me."

"I am a grown up, so call me Bill, Penelope." Bill replied to the middle child then smiled upon her. "It is only appropriate."

"Is that what you want to be referred to as on the file?" John asked.

"Bill, Bill Robinson." Bill replied.

"So I don't have to use Billy as a alias when I am grown?" Will asked.

"Will, you can still do that if you like." Bill reminded.

"Nah, I will stick to being called Will." Will shrugged in the neighboring seat alongside his middle aged counterpart.

"Why do you say that he can still use it?" John asked.

"I don't intend on staying on Earth long." Will said. "Nor in this solar system."

"Hey, who likes to get ice cream? I am paying!" Don announced and a chorus of 'me' filled the air.

Don and the young members of the family departed from the room leaving only John, Maureen, and Bill in the same room. It had been a long time since he had been in the same room as they were. The last time that he recalled it were that way was when he was a little boy. Then again, the last time they weren't listening to him then but given that their attention was solely focused on him; this wasn't the case anymore.

"Are you sure about this?" John asked.

"You don't have to leave everything that you know---"

"I kind of have to." Bill cut off his mother. "I see ghosts of people I used to know and trust once and all I see is lies that we're saving the planet by recycling."

"We never lied to you."

"You kept back that Earth was dying and said everything was going to be okay. Well, it wasn't! It wasn't okay! None of it was! You're worse than Doctor Smith was! You said that Earth wasn't dying! You said that we were doing it for colonization. Judy and Don; Adam and Eve. Isn't what what you planned if the fucking hypergate was made too late? Isn't it?"

"Yes."

Bill was unnervingly quiet as he stared his father in rage.

"But we did it for you---"

"If you did it for me then you would have told me the truth from the beginning before you went off playing God." Bill cut off his mother.

"I wasn't playing God---"

" _Science_ is playing in God's **playground.** " Bill cut off his father. It was a loud but subtle roar of fury that came from the older man in a calm tone of voice with emphasis on certain words without drawing the words out. "I don't want to be remotely part of your little charade that everything is fine."

"Then what do you want?" Maureen asked.

"I want . . ." The older Robinson cleared his throat. "I want you to tell Will and his sisters the truth for once before you really yank them into space without asking them."

His words were full of anger, resentment, and bitterness facing the two people that once used to be people that he would have at one point had the conversation gone differently, less swearing, more calmly, more endearingly, and more at a better route as he stared them down. The couple exchanged a glance over their son.

"We'll do it." John said then looked on in pity toward the older man.

"Did they find Doctor Smith?" Bill asked.

"In a cargo container." John replied, nodding, his features became serious. "He is in a holding cell right now." Will's stark serious tone eased as he sighed. It was as if a significant weight had fallen off his shoulders. "The general will be visiting you in a couple of days."

"I like to talk with him." Then Bill turned toward his parents. "And I don't want to be part of your life. One Will part of your life is enough as it is."

"I respect that decision, William." John said. "And I will do my best to keep it."

"Do your best like you did pretending I didn't matter to you. That seems to come natural to you, Professor Robinson." His words were sharp as he referred to his father by his title. "Like I didn't exist." his words were in hurt and cynicism. "I don't want Will to have to time travel to save your asses for a second time."

"What was it?" Maureen asked as John walked away then exited the room. "What invention was it?"

"The time travel invention. Tell him never to use it," He turned his gaze away toward the television that was playing a old western. "Never."

"I will." Maureen said then joined her partner.

Bill lowered the small remote to his side then leaned his head against the pillow with a sigh. He looked down toward his hands noting how his finger-less gloves were off. Instead of a white simple gown, it was a mainly black two piece outfit that was different in texture to how he had always imagined it from the countless media that displayed being in the hospital. It was mainly a long sleeved shirt with a turtle neck.

Then Bill fell into the dark as he skipped through channels and his eyes drooped closed. This time, unlike many times that he fought against it, protested against it, this time the older lone Robinson survivor welcomed the abyss as a familiar friend and became consumed in the dark dropping the remote to the side of the bed.

* * *

"Will, would you like to fly a kite in one of the solar domes?"

Will's head bobbed up in shock from the unexpected comment from his father. The man who hadn't, in the last three years, the time to act as if he were worth his time and often times acted as if he weren't there. Suddenly, a complete one hundred eighty was done as he looked up toward his father licking his ice cream cone alongside Penny in a small recreation dome from the bottom of the city. Don and Judy were somewhere else at a shop---and Judy dumped her drink on Don's head then walked off.

Will turned his attention toward his father as he lowered his ice cream cone.

"Come again?" Will asked, startled.

"Would you like to go fly a kite at the solar dome?" John asked.

"Do you mean it?" Will's eyes briefly widened.

"I do, Will." John and Maureen nodded at once. "With your sister, if she allows it and gets off her video diary."

Penny looked up toward John, her eyes full of shock, surprised to find father speaking that way.

"Aren't we going to do the mission in a hour?" Penny asked.

"No." Maureen said with a small smile. "It has been rescheduled. It is not going to be done today as your father said."

"It was a surprise," John replied as he laughed. 

"When are we going to launch?" Will asked.

"November." John replied. "That is the next launch that was seen to be the next best case scenario according to Mission Control."

"What is the worst case scenario?" Penny asked. 

"Never making it off because of Global Sedition's sheer stubbornness." Maureen replied to the middle child.

"In the mean time . . ." John began to say. "we'll get to spend some well deserved family time together before we go on the mission." John said as he licked his ice cream cone with his tongue then looked upon the youngest members of the family. "How would you feel about going on some zombie apocalypse simulators?"

Penny's jaw dropped then exchanged a glance with Will and back toward their parents. 

"I guess that is a start to reconciling after three years paying attention to the Jupiter." Penny said, once she straightened her jaw, turning off her audio diary with a mere click. "Better late than never to have something to look back to on our time home."

"Speaking of home. . ." John said. "It is dying right now. Nothing is working. That is why we are going to Alpha Prime."

"Why didn't you tell us in the beginning?" Penny asked.

"Did you not trust us?" Will asked, hurt.

"We didn't need that information spreading or leaking for that matter why we were fleeing to Alpha Prime." John began to explain to the children as their ice cream cones were leaking. He rubbed the back of his neck looking aside ashamed of his choices with regret. "I thought you couldn't handle the truth."

Maureen put her hand on his shoulder.

"So did I." Maureen looked toward the siblings. "We did that to protect you."

"Protect us? You didn't protect us. You made us very unhappy and angry for three years of leaving somewhere we left home for no reason!" Penny lashed out as she dumped her ice cream into the recycle bin then turned around glaring back toward them with her hands in her pockets. "That is the tower of being ignorant to how your children are feeling."

"I thought you could handle going out and leaving your friends behind to make history, to be the first colonists with no regrets, with no anger or resentment, or . . ." John couldn't finish it. 

"As you can see, he didn't notice that he as wrong until that talk we had with . . ."

"Older brother," Will helpfully supplied.

"And we like to make up for it." Maureen said.

It was quiet among them.

"Then turn all your graphic paper into kites." Penny threw it out there with bitterness. "If you don't care about the project and just us."

Inwardly, John winced, at seeing the damage to his own actions being at full display. Instead, John smiled upon them. He had neglected his children and he was going to rectify that for every single day of his life. It was a vow that was made then and there as he were reminded of the bitterness that radiated off his son's older counterpart. He wasn't going to let them become bitter toward him. He was going to let them become fond and endearing by being the father that had left for a mission for them and forgotten what he had done it for as time had passed by. 

"Then let's get that designing paper from Mission Control." John replied.

The family got up from the park bench and walked off for their air car.

"Let's go fly a kite!" Will was the first of them to start singing. "Let's go fly a kite! Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring--"

"Where the air is clear!" Penny sang. 

"Oh, let's go fly a kite!" Maureen joined in. 

"Let's go fly a kite to the highest height where the air is clear and send it soaring!" The group sang as they started to laugh. "Up through the atmosphere! Up where the air is clear! Oh, let's go fly a kite!"

* * *

Bill spent the better part of the next few days regaining his strength and body fat as the nutrition helped him quickly recover from the incident. With physical therapy, he relearned to walk again and move his joints just as he had easily done as a child. Learning to walk once more came with its hardship. It occurred to Bill that he were learning how to live again without a mission being the bane of his existence and what was the bane of his existence? To live his golden years as a happy ending knowing that his family were safe and far away where they were meant to be from him as he took charge of his most profound creation; cybernetics. 

His figure returned to the way it had been before minus for a few scars that lingered on from alien encounters and space authorities that crossed his way. He looked out the window spotting what life used to be and grew horrified. Life wasn't as bright as he used to remember. He hadn't remembered the smog that badly as it used to be. He looked on in horror as the spider's words echoed back in his mind. And the motive behind Global Sedition became clear to him.

Bill smacked the ledge of the window until he caused it to crack and his knuckles were covered in gashes and his wound was tended to by a medical professional. He hadn't very well considered what to do in the mean time after his return to Earth, after seeing what they had left behind, he hadn't much of a choice but he had one; now, and he didn't like it one bit. Bill looked down toward his large hand studying it as if he were looking back at what his hands displayed a life of.

He was quiet as he went on to shape himself.

Even going on to cut his hair and other facial hair. 

All until he left the only reminder of what person that he became discarding the beard.

A middle aged man with a goatee and cynical eyes that he had only seen from Smith.

Bill understood why the older man was the way that he was when entering his life.

* * *

The door across from him open with a swish and the officer that he hadn't seen for over three decades came through the doorway with his hands linked behind his back. He wore a grim look instead of the warm, welcoming, and quite happier version of himself when he were around the child up until Bill went aboard the Jupiter and made tragic history. Instead, the officer wore a professional demeanor.

"Hello, General. Call me Bill, please."

"We have been interviewing Colonel Smith for a week." the general started right off the bat as he approached the younger man who lowered the tablet to his lap. "Even as we unearth his espionage, his fiances, and his acts against Earth; he denies having any part of it."

"Figures." Bill shrugged, amused, with a roll of his eye. "Trying to draw up a conspiracy that isn't there and desperately trying to save his own skin."

"Do you want to testify against him?"

Bill laughed.

"I have a better way of making him suffer, General."

"Oh? What is that?"

"Leave him behind when the people of Earth have to leave for Alpha Prime." The general was surprised with the response that came from the younger man. The younger man took a bite out of the sandwich then chewed and swallowed with a finger held up. He shifted his attention toward the general. "The place that he loves being the place that kills him."

"That is . . . very specific."

"It is the only treatment that he deserves." Bill replied. "Being alone and miserable." The younger man sighed lowering his head with his fingers left on the tablet screen. "It's better that way."

"He destroyed a mission and killed a family in your future." The general reminded him, incredulously.

Bill glared back toward the general as the air became dark around them. 

"That was all the space spiders doing and the planet itself." Bill stood up as his features grew dark. "He delayed us, that's all." The lone Robinson survivor walked away from the general then folded his arms as he looked out the dark window. It was silent between them as the general's eyes were planted upon the younger man. "It had a very strong magnetic pull."

The general nodded, in understanding, on the issue.

"I don't know how that would ever fly in the paper work but, most of the brass don't want him to get out of this scott free." the general advised Bill. "It won't fly."

Bill turned in the direction of the older man with a subtle smile.

"I owe Doctor Smith everything." He gestured around the room with his hands then turned away from the window.

"Are you going to change your testimony to help him?" was the next question.

Bill shook his head with a smile.

"I have no interest in doing that, General Goddard." Bill replied as a spark went off in his eye. "I will tell the truth and nothing but the truth."

The general smiled back.

"What can you tell me?" The general asked as he were gestured toward a chair.

"Vegetarian hot dog?" Bill offered a hot dog for the quite elderly man.

"No," the general smiled back with a shake of his hand. "I am not interested in plant-meat."

Bill shrugged.

"One time, my older sister and I went exploring in the mountains and there was a avalanche in the first winter that we were down there." Bill began to proceed regaling over the tale of his childhood. "It wasn't a bad winter."

"But?"

"But, yeah, it was."

He sipped through the recyclable straw then swallowed the liquid.

"So he died there?"

Bill shook his head.

"Doctor Smith? Hell no." He laughed as he threw his head back and laughed, loudly, in the seat. "We didn't know if he were dead or alive."

"Did he come back on his own?"

"No," Bill paused for a moment, looking back, with a small smile. "Robot and I found him one night when I couldn't sleep."

Bill clenched on to the hamburger over a moment of reflection. His hands briefly trembled over the memories of fear, distress, and being quite upset at losing someone that he were getting close to. Bill bit into it a few times and proceed to chew. Bill had his mouth full savoring the taste of the meat, the spice, and the unique texture to it. He swallowed his bite as the older man watched him patiently waiting for him to continue the story. Bill took another sip of his glass.

"A day after?" the general asked.

"Weeks after."

The general whistled.

"He should have been dead."

Bill nodded with a snicker.

"After the snow melted." Bill squeezed his eyes then reopened them. "Turned out, Judy discovered that we found him in a natural induced cryostasis."

And Bill talked on about their adventures to the amusement of the general.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was Will's idea to do the singing for 'lets go fly a kite'. Got some Lost in Space silliness as a easter egg in there and I like it.


	3. The acts of one continue to echo

It had been only a hour since the younger man had been discharged from the hospital with a full bill of health and waited in the cafeteria for the general. The general walked in then set a key card on to the table and slid it forward.

"It wasn't easy finding you a apartment."

"Thanks." Bill looked toward the card and read the address.

"So I gave the apartment that once used to belong to our common mutual thorn in the side." Bill looked up in alarm then a spare oxygen mask was slid on to the table. Bill took it off the table. "Don't worry, we got his belongings cleaned out and stored."

"Is that all you were able to get?"

"Without making a scene is what is needed for this delicate situation." he smiled back at the younger man. "We got it in the down low about his recent betrayal."

"General," Bill said, his voice on the edge. "I am not testifying against him if you keep his crime a damn secret."

"You're really going that way? Public? We don't want Global Sedition to find out about you and plus---they know where he lives. I don't trust that not one bit." he shook his finger at the younger man with his elbow leaned against the table. "Compared to the stock market crashing, riots, and hysteria; losing a eyewitness is a lot worse than that."

Bill smiled back at the man with his arms folded on the table.

"I can handle it." Bill replied.

The general looked at him, skeptically.

"They are unpredictable in how they strike and who they use. Don't even know that you're about to be thwarted by them until it is too late."

"I was raised in space, General." Bill replied. "And trained by a double spy, a traitor, a doctor, a war veteran, a alien. . . and many other things."

He sighed, taking a bite out of his jello, then lowered it to the table with a smirk.

"You were in hell, kid." The general admitted. "You had to do what had to be done and you don't have to do what he taught you to do." He reached a hand out then put it on the younger man's forearm giving it a brief squeeze for a moment. "Let someone else think about your protection."

Bill gave it some thought, looking back at a memory, then looked back toward the older man.

"He _is_ gone." the older man looked aside quite regretfully then took out another large chunk and swallowed with a few bites here and there. "But, with me?" he began to smile looking up toward the general. "His legacy never goes away."

Bill took one last bite then chucked it into the recycling bin alongside him and walked on leaving the general behind. 

The general sighed.

"He is in prison, quite dead where this kid is from, and is still being a pain in the rear." The general's head fell into his hands, his elbows on the counter, then sighed.

* * *

_"Why the hell are we in the middle of the forest?"_

_Bill recalled vividly some survival skills that the monster had given upon him before they went their separate ways and gifts that were handed to him in the forest out of the place that had them stranded together but normally it was done in broad light beneath the dark clouds that loomed over the crater. And this was a memory that he looked upon at a different light given that he were in civilization._

_"You're sixteen, William."_

_He remembered sighing._

_"As of tomorrow." Bill reminded the older Spider. "For someone who says don't grow up too fast you are telling me to do the opposite."_

_"Never the matter--it is about time that you learn some self defense." The spider mutated man slipped on a pair of gloves that masked his long claws then unexpectedly flipped the man over to his back. "Must always be on the alert on this planet."_

_"Hey!"_

_The young boy landed to the ground with a thud._

_"That isn't fair!" The young teenager got up to his feet with a glare toward Spider. "I wasn't ready."_

_"Unexpected attacks leave you hardly ready for it, my dear boy." was the reply as the scene grew darker around him._

_The teenager looked around._

_"Doctor Smith, this isn't funny! Come out!" It was covered in fog and the wind was whistling around them. "I am nearly done reconstructing Robot, can't this wait a little longer?"_

_The teenager was knocked down to his knees with a yelp._

_"You're dead." Spider said.  
_

_The teenager grit his teeth together then looked up toward the spider._

_"Not yet, old monster." Bill said.  
_

_The teenager lunged forward but missed crashing on to his face in the dirt._

_"You exposed your intentions." Spider hissed upon the teenager. "Don't do that. Never do that."_

_The teenager pushed himself up then wiped the dirt off his face._

_"Why are we doing this anyway?" Bill asked.  
_

_The old monster hummed._

_"One day I won't be there to protect you and neither will your bubble headed booby made of a very flawed system."_

_"A Atomic Engine isn't heavily flawed!" The teenager roared then hit a tree once Spider stepped out of the way and groaned._

_"A atomic engine is full of radiation, my dear boy." Spider looked down upon the boy with his hands linked behind his back then shifted the teenager on to his back with his foot ever so delicately. "You should go back to the drawing board on that issue and rethink the chassis."_

_Spider's long claw rested below the teenager's chin._

_"A protective shielding around the chassis should anything go wrong that lasts for a complete twenty-four hours." Bill said. "Will that ease your concerns?"  
_

_The spider hummed then nodded._

_"Precisely." Spider confirmed. "And it shall."  
_

_The teenager frowned, exasperated, staring back at the aging monster._

_"Can we stop this now?" Bill glared, exasperated, toward Spider.  
_

_Spider scowled._

_"Not until you have your defenses up." Spider replied._

_"My mental shields are up." Bill replied.  
_

_Spider rolled his eyes with a sigh._

_"Your physical defense, you ninny." the creature snarled back at the teenager then slid his foot off and threw him aside._

_The teenager hit a tree trunk then propped himself up._

_"Ow, my ribs." Bill whined.  
_

_Spider lifted his head up in alarm and concern._

_"Oh, did I throw you too hard?" Spider asked, apologetically.  
_

_"I think so." Bill leaned against the wooden trunk as he cupped along his figure. "Owwww."_

_Spider came to his side then suddenly he were on his chest and the teenager was on his back._

_"Good one." Spider complimented the teenager. "But, that's trickery." He flipped over knocking the boy aside then looked upon him fondly. "It is prudent that you learn to think fast in combat."  
_

_The teenager sighed as he started to lift himself up to his feet then shifted toward Spider.  
_

_"Can't I catch a break?" Bill asked.  
_

_"No." Spider said, simply. "Raise your hands up and close them into fists," The teenager did as the alien requested him. "Now, try to defend yourself."_

_"I am ready." Bill nodded back.  
_

_The spider grinned as he hopped from side to side as the dead leaves cracked beneath his feet looking upon the boy then cracked his neck as he shifted his head from side to side._

_"I will be easy on you."_

_The teenager laughed then Spider knocked him down with a single punch._

_"I said I will go easy on you." Spider said, annoyed, looming over the boy with his arms folded looking down toward him in contempt. "Not hard!"_

_The teenager laughed rolling over to his side as he hunched over on the ground and Spider rolled his eyes._

_"Pay attention!" Spider scolded the teenager as he towered over him. "It is a life or death matter and I won't be the cause of the attack then. " he folded his arms then shook his head, disappointed, in the teenager then rubbed his forehead. "How do I put this stealth and precision into words that you would understand?"  
_

_"Disney." was all Spider got from the teenager._

_"Bah HUM BUG!" Spider screeched as the teenager resumed laughing. "Stooping to that level! SSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNG!" The tall man walked away as he were screeching into the open air venting his frustration shaking his heavily changed hands. "Much as I like to sing on my off time---" he turned toward the cackling as he was moving from side to side. "I can't afford to do that on a DANGEROUS planet!"_

_The teenager's figure shook with laughter then leaned up and combed his hand through his hair._

_"You're half alien, Doctor Smith." the teenager reminded the alien as he stopped laughing. "You are always going to be alive."_

_"Yes, alive." Spider nodded in agreement then winced as he looked aside toward the tree line then wandered off as he continued to speak. "But not always going to be nearby."_

_Twigs cracked beneath his feet one by one as the teenager slid up toward the aging monster watching him come to a pause then his hood shifted toward the right. The spider was a black deathly figure in the fog that was beginning to blend in with the dark. Moment by moment that passed, his figure was becoming far more difficult to spot among the scenery._

_"The alien guests do have their ways of keeping us apart." the teenager admitted._

_"And making false promises of helping us off this rock as a core group." Spider said, bitterly. "We shall die aboard the death ship that will be our potter field as time goes by . . . if your invention doesn't pull through with all the interruptions those rude visitors put us through."_

_Bill searched through the dark, peering out for shapes, then abruptly fell to the ground with a crash as a significant weight crashed upon him._

_"Stop doing that!" Bill cried once he stumbled against the wall. "This is child abuse."_

_Bill covered his newly broken nose._

_"When you develop your fight or flight thoroughly, I will!" His claws dug into the uniform.  
_

_"How about we do this another way with the whole training shabang?"_

_"No."_

_"How about I do some of my training tackling you when you least expect it?"_

_"You are a very noisy child, you are incapable of that, I know you."_

_"People can change. That's what you're trying to do. Change me for the better so I can live on without you?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Why? Does Global Sedition have assassins in the past?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Oh."_

_"You will have to be a man. More than you have ever been. . ." Spider's eyes lit up then he grinned, broadly, as a idea struck him as the boy used the discarded medical kit and clogged up his nose. Silently, without making a noise, Spider moved among the terrain as Bill closed the medical kit then looked on and searched for him. The young man made a annoyed sound._

_"Doctor Smith, stop it!"_

_"You will have to be swift as a coursing river, mysterious as the dark side of the moon, with the force of a great typhoon, tranquil as the forest around you but a fire within." Bill got up to his feet then picked up a discarded item that had a set of boxing gloves then scanned the terrain. He slid his boots off then set them aside and proceeded to walk on the tips of his toes. "Once you find you center, you will be sure to live."_

_"If you don't heed my words, then you're not cut out for living your entire life on this planet alone." His words echoed in the forest. "You're just a spineless, pale, pathetic lot."_

_Bill kept his ears out as he listened to the sound of wood being disturbed and the slightest sounds as the night weaned on as hours wandering around the forest. Bill heard something from over his shoulder then tossed the boxing glove across. A loud crash came from ahead of him. Bill ran on after the direction of the fallen opponent. Instead of grumbling, he heard laughter and a slow applause come to. Bill paused then grew a small smile of his own looking upon the aged spider._

_"Good job." Bill saw the first rays of light reveal his friend with a bloody nose. "You're good at that."_

_"Took me awhile."_

_"It is a good start." Bill clapped a hand over his nose with a wince. "Now, about fending off a unexpected attack. We're doing that, again, tomorrow night as part of this."_

_"I am already tired as it is, Doctor Smith." Bill complained.  
_

_"Then I will make sure that you have a nap in the afternoon." Spider said.  
_

_"I mean I don't want to do that." Bill amended.  
_

_The alien but ugly and aging smile faded replaced by a scowl._

_"You need to be READY for THAT moment!" He jabbed his stuffed up finger into Bill's chest with a snarl. "Global Sedition hires OOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNLLY THE BEST!"_

_Spider hissed then made his way back to the Jupiter 2._

* * *

Bill wore the oxygen mask as he traveled to the apartment that had been given to him by the federal government as payment for his effort in preventing a catastrophic loss and failure in the loss of life. His hands were cupped in his pockets as he traveled down the side walk passing by the figures at a time that weren't clear to see through the smog.

He sensed that he were being followed then went down a corridor and turned around toward the direction of who was tailing him. He stepped behind a antique dumpster then watched as the figures came into the wide space kept between them. Bill charged, silently, through the smog and knocked them down one by one with punches to the base of the chest and the last one was knocked back with a punch to the face. He swung his hand surrounded by the supposed hit employed individuals.

Bill shook his head, disappointed, then made his way on leaving them behind as a reminder tugged in to his heart. 

His old monster was right about being the target upon the return to the future.

The only thing that he was ever going to be right about in Bill's lifetime, that much was certain.

Bill resumed walking through the smog headed for the apartment complex.

* * *

_Spider trudged through the terrain, his dulled blue eyes scanning the environment, his ears listening to the sound of the many space animals that lived alongside the doomed crew of the Jupiter 2. It was a night walk that he upheld for himself with quiet time alone away from the articles of his plan, his torture, the bare reminder of what he had once been forced to become accustomed to. He heaved a sigh lowering his gaze from the dark sky and looked on toward the environment that had once been slightly brighter was now darker and maturer than it had once been._

_Spider stroked the stalks of the plants that were little reminders of what he had left behind, what he had lost, carefully wrapping his fingers around the stem. His fingers were no longer small and stubby but long and quite thin in size but when clasped around a plant and closed then lift them up gently, instead the plant was yanked on and that continued for each successive plant that Spider attempted to smell until it occurred to him that his strength was different to what it had once been. He let go of the plant then withdrew._

_Spider looked aside on the matter of change. The teenager had yet to change in self defense. In the last eight months, Bill had been the brunt of his efforts to train him and develop some skill to best self-sustain him and the brunt of it was amounting down to child abuse between alien visits. He winced at the plant at reflection withdrawing his hand then shook his head turning away with a groan. He wasn't going to be a child much longer in the next two years. Two years that should have been spent hanging out with his own troop, wooing a girl, attending the theater, having family nights---everything that his employers and he had taken away from him._

_The poor boy is doomed, Spider thought to himself. All his attempts to properly teach him had resulted in the younger man landing on the ground covered in gashes and bruises from the boxing gloves the man wore. His shoulders lowered with a slump as he walked on with his gaze lowered. The plan could only work for so long to bring him home if the younger man had sufficient skill in hand to hand combat should the weapon of choice being a improvised laser weapon be out of his reach including any object to call a weapon._

_Abruptly, Spider fell to his knees then looked up and was sent crashing down to the floor. He hissed then lunged forward with a snarl. He caught on to a large tree branch then leaned off searching for his attacker then was the victim of several blows that knocked him down to his feet. He got back up into the dark on his feet with a hiss looking among the trees and up the branches sensing a definite presence lingered. His mind raced with one possibility; serial alien killer._

_Out of the blue, his attacker clocked him in the side of the jaw then Spider stumbled back and rolled down the hill -- going over rocks, through tree saplings, and bushes -- then into a pond with a loud splash and a terrified shriek. His heart raced, remaining in the water quite still to fool the attacker, contemplating how to best murder his attacker once having the upper hand. Until he heard familiar laughter above him and all those thoughts were gone. Spider shook his head then looked up spotting Bill towering over him with his hands on his hips with his head thrown back, hooing and hawing, then hunched over as he continued laughing._

_Spider couldn't help but smile as he rubbed the side of his mouth._

_"I found my center, old monster!" Bill called._

_"I see." Spider said, proudly, looking up toward him. "I see."_

_"Are you okay?" Bill asked once he stopped laughing but was grinning with his hands on his knees._

_"Bruises is all." Spider waved his hand then rubbed the back of his neck looking aside with a wince then looked up toward Bill. "But my delicate back, I fear it may not recover from this any soon."_

_"Like my attack?"_

_"It was exquisite." Spider leaned up then fell back. "Oh dear! Oh woe is me! I can't seem to get up!"_

_"I'll get Robot--"_

_"No, I don't need his help. This is our little moment. Is it not?"_

_"Why, yeah, looking at it that way."_

_"Come hither, my dear boy."_

_Bill came down the hill then over to the pond. Spider held his hand out for the teenager then Bill took it. The spider grinned then yanked him into the pond where he fell with a splash. Bill leaned up from the puddle then frowned as the older monster seemed to laugh with one hand covering his face as his figure shook and his laughter rang. Bill frowned then picked up a clump of mud then threw it at Spider's face then Spider did the same and hit him with a clump of mud._

_Fortunetly, this was how Robot found them covered in mud from fabric to every part of their body according to his medical equipment as he loomed on the edge of the hill. They looked up toward Robot staring upon them in a judging manner._

_"Robot, are you disappointed?" Bill asked  
_

_"Negative." Robot denied as his helm twirled. "Robots are not disappointed."  
_

_"Well, you can be part of the next one." Bill replied then shrugged off his friend's lack of presence in the game.  
_

_Robot's claw appeared from behind his back then threw two mud balls at the men that splattered on to their faces._

_"You can't say that this was the next one, William." Spider reminded as he flicked mud off his eyes.  
_

_Bill's grin became broader._

_"Oh, but it is!" Bill knelt down to the ground._

_"What?" Spider asked, startled, looking down toward Bill quite perplexed._

_"MUD FIGHT!" Bill announced._

_Bill picked up a large clump of mud then Spider followed his lead, filling his hands with mud, layering it until it were one large ball in his hands. Spider chased after the teenager, crying out, "Wait! WAAAAIT! WAIT FOR ME!" And together they chased after the fleeing Robot. Instead of a quite miserable outing, it had became quite the enlightening and funniest moments in their exile._


	4. Apartment to one Doctor Zachary Smith

The apartment wasn't quite what Bill had anticipated. It was bright and colorful with purple and green florescent lights at random parts of the house with artistic artwork hanging on the walls featuring fantastic characters and sights. A part of the older man proceeded to wonder at the real taste that the man had. Then Bill paused and snorted in amusement at the pictures of rockets and spaceships that felt so retro it had to have been Mission Control's doing in refurnishing the apartment. It was if they had removed every trace of him and replaced it with the obvious signs of being unpersoned.

A word that Bill hadn't thought of in its sincerity in his long and tiring years on the planet with his old monster. His hand wiped off the dust from the counter that was part of the kitchen. He rubbed his fingers together looking about the room and out the window. A window that reminded him of the planet that his old monster wanted to come back to all, Death at the very window, a window that reminded him of what had driven his family to space and to lose them all. Quietly, Bill made a new decision.

Bill went to the side console then inputted a command with small beeps and the curtains closed then sought out for the bedroom. He went up the stairs with his hands on rail guiding him up then on to the balcony looming over the edge, observing the ceiling decorations that were very expensive in nature. Bill snickered to himself. Can't entirely eliminate the presence of someone if you don't know their tastes from head to toe in where they lived. Bill turned away then the doorway before him opened and he was displayed with a room.

It was a very simple room that was queen sized and decorated in black with drapes that reeked of darkness just as his father's fashion style shortly before the announcement that they were going to colonize the Alpha Centauri system, Alpha Prime A, a change of style that Bill recalled came into change. Used to be bright but dulled down colors was his fashion choice until he learned of Earth's diagnosis. It was the color of mourning, a all too familiar color, once that he didn't want to see again.

Bill frowned then searched around the house for colorful material notably into the closet.

"Where is the appealing colors. . ."

He knelt down, flicked a rounded and curved light switch along the wall, then found in a taped up box in what turned out to be a walk in close that was labeled as; colorful bedroom secondary theme; maroon, green, and yellow.

"Secondary?" Bill exclaimed, incredulously. " **SECONDARY**?"

Bill yanked the box out.

"That's a primary theme _and_ secondary theme, you old idiot."

He returned to the bedroom then yanked off the dark bedding and dark drapes with the most colorful ones at all. 

"Ah, much better." Bill smiled, looking down upon the bedding, as he smoothed out the blanket.

He tossed off his clothing leaving into a pile beside the bed. He put Robot's glass sensor tape on to the counter. He looked around then slid it to the floor and waited for it to shatter. It landed with a thud then he lowered himself down and picked it up. He tossed it up and down into his hand with a grin. The quartz glass sensor tape worked just as it were designed. Bill placed it back onto the counter turned his attention away from the heavily modified bed. He walked over toward the closet and typed on a panel. The panel slid open to reveal a black screen with blue light standing out against the frame.

"How may I help you?"

Robot's familiar voice came from the panel and it startled Bill at first to hear that instead of a woman's voice from the machines that he had used in his childhood. Perhaps, this was a perk of being in the United Global Space Force as a doctor making sure that the Robinson colonists were prepared for their long flight with a piece of what their potential existence could be with a voice that would alarm them. He frowned giving it some consideration. Was Robot a security system in the house? They hadn't completely unpersoned Smith as a whole in his home.

"Please answer, I require your request." the voice lacked irritation or insistence as Robot had.

 _Maybe I should give Robot reign over the apartment after finding a slot to put him in tomorrow morning. . ._ Bill shrugged. _Worth enough to try._

"Sorry about that." Bill apologized, sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I need some colorful clothing." 

"Cost is a thousand thirty-four digital coins." The closet computer replied.

"How much is in the bank?" Bill asked.

"Seven million point three million dollars." The closet computer replied.

Bill frowned, skeptically, _that can't be right! UGSF is not that generous_.

"Who's account is this?" Bill asked.

"Colonel Zachary Smith of the United States Space Corps."

Bill began to laugh as he folded his arms, _they missed his personal account!_

"Can't hurt to spend it for clothing." Bill shrugged. "Uh, order five orange shirts, three yellow shirts, seven purple shirts, eight boxers, four briefs, a blue jacket with white and orange, seven pairs of jeans, twelve dozen socks, and--the colors cannot be dull."

"Affirmative."

"Please scan my figure and search for the required outfits. I am going to be here for awhile waiting for what I want to be done." then he added in the next breath. "And use Doctor Smith's money for the purchase, please."

A bright blue light illuminated from the machine then scanned him.

"Name of the recipient, please."

"Bill Robinson. . ." Then he paused, his hands on his hips, as he started to snicker. "It would be funny if I got myself being called by Professor Robinson and wore it the way it was supposed to be." he shook his head then sighed. "Computer, leave it as Bill Robinson."

"Confirmed."

"Order up, please." Bill requested.

"Order is being processed." the closet computer replied.

"Thank you, computer." Bill thanked with a smile toward the screen that displayed the wave length of the computer's voice.

The machine paused, almost as if startled, incredulous, or a hundred other feelings that it weren't feeling. But in a whole, the comment of thanks was unexpected.

"You are welcome." the closet computer beeped back.

Bill walked out of the closet the went into the bedroom, slipped under the covers, and he was out.


	5. A court appearance by the older Robinson

Darkness. That was all Robot was familiar to as he remained hovering in the darkness. He went through his memories that only brought a specter of illumination in where he was, all alone and abandoned, without any feeling to any part of his model. He lacked claws, treads, helm, joints, a chassis, all in the entirety that made him up. He knew that Will Robinson was safe and sound, his duty to the mission of the Jupiter 2 was a accomplishment in making sure that the boy made it to prevent the thwarting of the mission and to protect what was left the Robinsons.

Robot was drastically aware that he had been thrown through the portal, that the familiar companion that he called a argumentative, lazy, farce, deceptive (and of many things), was gone. It was strange to know that he was never going to talk to him. It was even stranger that they weren't side by side as the world ended around them as Robot had processed should the spider's flaws have lost against the most paternal feelings that Robot speculated had grown in the mutated man toward the boy.

Robot had long believed that he would fall in a battle against the creature that had once been a man in a desperate bid to protect the final member of the Robinson party in the last mission before the portal closed. He had always imagined injuring the creature to some degree immobilizing the creature and buying the boy enough time to jump into the past to save them all. It was unexpected that it didn't take Robot's plasma blaster to save the day but a simple choice from the frail tattered fragments of a sane mind.

Suddenly, he felt feeling, and bright but gentle blue light entered the darkness.

Space become restricted and his entire being channeled through something large and quite expansive.

His visual file adjusted changing from blue to green then back again and a face that had pixels covering it.

"Hello?"

A familiar voice came out among static.

"Helllooo."

The voice sounded better than he had in recent years.

"Robot, are you there?"

He tapped on the screen.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

He looked so young, there were little words to say, Robot's processor was jumping---more else, the old man once a boy was in better condition than how he had last seen him. His messy hair was now shorter, cleaner, and life was in his figure more than it had once been so long ago. There was a spark that was back in his eyes with all too familiar concern.

"Will Robinson, how may I help you?"

"I prefer to be called Bill." Bill replied with a shake of his hand. "Bill Robinson."

"The mission was a succcess."

"Yeah, Robot. I did it." Bill was grinning from ear to ear. "Explore around the house if you like." he gestured about the space with a twirl.

"This is very expensive."

"The best that can be given to me at the moment."

"I accept the new model."

"I am hitting the hay, Robot." Bill stretched his arms out, his hands closed into fists, as he stretched then rubbed the nape of his neck as he turned away and proceeded to walk toward the bedroom. "You have unlimited access to every piece of technology and welcome to catch up with my activities here if you like."

"I detect privacy mode is off."

"Like it?"

"Affirmative."

"Enjoy, Robot! This is the fruit of my labor! Everything that we ever deserved is right at our finger tips! Everything!"

Bill crashed into the bed then flopped over landing to his side and proceeded to fall asleep as Robot surfed the activity log, the recent news, as the changes in the timeline became apparent headline by headline that crossed Robot's dashboard. The headlines mostly consisted of: 

_MISSION CONTROL STUNNED BY BETRAYAL._

_DOCTOR SMITH ARRESTED FOR TREASON, ATTEMPTED SABOTAGE, ATTEMPTED MURDER._

_JUPITER 1 MAIDEN FLIGHT DELAYED,_

_JUPITER 1 VOYAGE DEPARTURE DATE CLASSIFIED,_

_DR SMITH'S COURT MARTIAL TO START IN TWO WEEKS,_

_DR SMITH'S POSSESSIONS HAVE BEEN SEIZED,_

_COULD CAPTAIN DANIELS'S MURDERER BE REVEALED AT DR. SMITH'S TRIAL?_

_UGSF IS MUM ABOUT THE PROCEEDINGS OF OLD WILL ROBINSON_

_"DR SMITH'S PEERS IN USGF WILL DECIDE HIS FATE," GENERAL SAYS._

Robot turned off the news and laughed, mechanically, at the trouble that had been stirred even to the fact of the matter that this was a mess he couldn't talk his way out of. But the core of it all was that Smith wasn't going to leave Earth anytime soon and he were doomed to stay there. Just what he had always wanted and wished in the future that had once been but the terms of the stay came with certain cruelty to his name, his character, and reputation to ensure his continued stay on Earth in different housing. It was cruel but the kindest cruelty to ensure certain happiness for one party.

It was only a shame that the younger Smith was capable of experiencing it and not the older version capable of savoring it for all its misery and irony that had fallen upon him. He would only see that it were unfair and suffering every moment of it and not enjoy a single moment of it. Robot's laughter only grew loud and louder at the passing minutes with little injection of sorrow, despair, or sadness. Robot hacked through the layers of code until he found the current well being of the Robinsons and locked into their home system.

Will and Penny were sharing the same room as they had once only long ago, Judy's loud snoring echoed through the house, John and Maureen were in the living room slowly dancing along to a old song holding hands with smiles of their own under the dim light of their light fixtures. They were together, happy, and quite content and whole in the same place. He hadn't seen this kind of happiness from them before or the sincere air of tranquility when with the children fast asleep not even since the first night after landing on the planet of doom.

* * *

"The prosecutor of the case is Alex Johnston."

The general had just relayed to Bill the specific members that would be at the trial into detail, the name of the judge -- who was in all intents and purposes a background character that mattered -- being Judge Jude and was now going over the name of the important people up front a day after Robot had came back to the land of the living.

"Alex Johnston?" Bill repeated.

Bill scanned the file on his holo-watch then flicked a finger down taking down notes of the impressive career file.

"A very highly esteemed prosecutor." Was the general's reply. "And highly decorated."

"And Doctor Smith's attorney?" Bill asked.

"No." Bill flicked the screen back to the person that he were speaking to. The reply sounded quite reluctant from the general. "I can't give you that."

"No?" Bill rose his brows up. " _Why_?"

"It's a generally bad idea to stir a already cooked pot as it is even for a time traveler that had to go through some life altering event that brought him here. That is something a psychologist understands." the general replied best to the best of his ability as the younger man's brows lowered in unison then sighed. "He is not that kind of man to let a defense attorney on his behalf go after them."

"Even if I wasn't going address them, I would like to hear their name." Bill said.

"I told him about how you arrived."

Bill nodded, understandingly.

"Him? You mean Doctor Smith. Don't beat around the bush."

"---and I might have left him with West for a hour after I gave you his apartment." the general winced from the other end of the communication. "He was pretty beat up when Major West was done with him and he let him."

Bill frowned, but quite perplexed, his mind running with questions and alarm.

"Doctor Smith let Don do it." Bill said.

"That is unlike him."

"Very." Bill agreed.

"The colonel was in fetal position when the major came out of it and he was singing like a canary after he got out of the ER about his handler and the crimes that he did for them." The general elaborated over the younger man intently listening to the retelling of the events prior. "He will be out for the trial in a few days."

The general grimaced with a sigh as though he had to say more but he didn't want to say it.

"What is it, general?" Bill asked. "I see something is on your mind."

"He says that he would like to speak with you."

 _And that's the tentative dealbreaker for him._ Bill sighed. _and for me._

"Tell him that I will speak to him after I testify," Bill then added. "Please."

"He is pretty insistent that it happens before, Bill."

The man who insisted to be referred to as 'The general' to Will was a child sat across from him hundreds of miles away or hundreds of miles above on the nearest space station somewhere in the known solar system. It was a comforting thought to the younger man being with someone on his side even with one tiny lie that had been demolished between them with simple bonding about survival on Earth and a hope killing planet between two different eras. It was a bridge that brought them together as survivors.

"General, I had one thing drilled into me growing up when it wasn't about survival." Bill replied.

"What was that?" The general asked.

"Never ever visit the person you are sending to prison before you testify against them." from the other side of the connection, the general smiled back at him. "Eliminates any conflicts of interest."

"Could I make a video recording for him to see?" the general offered to Bill. "It doesn't count as a chat."

"Sure." Bill shrugged it off.

With a press of a few buttons, the general was then grinning and it looked better on him then the somber expression that he wore when first entering his life for the second time.

"And go."

"Doctor Smith, it's a bad idea to talk before your trial." Bill reminded. "You taught me that. After my testimony, maybe then we'll talk, but I doubt that either of us will be happy about it. And please, don't call me William. Call me Billiam."

"And done."

Bill's head fell into his free hand.

"Shit." Bill became disgruntled on the issue. "He is going to roast me over this."

The general laughed, in bemusement, then chuckled.

"I'll amend the error on your behalf."

Bill smiled, lowering his hand, facing the older man. .

"You're a lifesaver, General Goddard."

"Kiddo, when are you going to call me by my favorite name?"

"When I am several solar systems away from you." Bill replied.

That caused the general to laugh at the reply and his figure shook from the laughter and Bill grinned as well. The general leaned back in the chair and grinned.

"You are also a life saver. The savior of a entire civilization. I better go, have to check the progress on the Jupiter line." The general waved then the call was over.

Bill lowered his arm then went into the holo-simulator labeled 'Halo' with a whistle.

He anticipated the next few days were going to be a wild storm of events.

* * *

Bill woke up screaming the following night to Robot's alarm. It was quite the distressing night asides to the young man coming back from the holo-simulator all weary and cautious as he entered the place that Robot liked to refer to as a home. The trial weighed heavily on the young man's mind, that much was obvious to Robot, as the young man spent the following few hours regaining his composure rewatching select movie films. And one of the few was Starbeast followed by the following film after that; Galaxy Quest.

Laughter healed the wounds that the nightmare had left behind.

A few more days and the concern about old memories coming to wouldn't be necessary.

It would all come to pass.

* * *

A few days after the nightmares had began and attacks by would be assassins, the court date for Bill's testimony came. Bill came through the doors of the court room flanked by security officials by his side. His hands were wrapped in recyclable gauze. He scanned the faces of the bystanders, many of whom were strangers, all except for one familiar face that he had seen in holocalls with his mother and notable occasions when he stirred trouble with his patents for science class.

He smiled, briefly, as he went past her then shifted his gaze to the front half of the court room and the small door was slipped open allowing him passage in to the front half of the room then into a chair in the booth set alongside the judge's booth.

"Do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?"

A bible was held below the swear in person's hand.

"On that?" Bill asked. "No." he looked down upon the book then back up. "Does anyone have a science book?"

Murmurs escaped from the crowd.

"I don't mean to be disrespectful, sir. But, I prefer to swear on science instead of something that is only credible to a grain of wheat."

The judge leaned back into the chair.

"Someone, get a recycled science book."

One of the officer's left the room as the judge lowered her glasses then shifted toward him.

"Mr Robinson, I understand your feelings on the bible and will accommodate for your testimony." Jude said.

"Thank you."

Bill grinned with a nod.

"I got it!"

"Is it recent?" Jude asked.

"It's 2001."

"Please, get a recent one. The 2040's." Jude said. "urely, there must be a copy of that in the lost and found storage room."

"Yes, your honor. I will get it."

The judge turned toward Bill.

"I hope you have a lot to say," she shook her finger at him with her elbow leaned against the counter.

"And I do, your honor."

"I have it, your honor!" The officer came back out with a aged notebook. "2050!"

The novel was handed over to the individual who swore in the young man in age. Bill withdrew his hand from the surface of novel then it was withdrawn and he seated. The room became silent as the prosecutor stood up from the chair then approached the young Robinson.

"Mr Robinson, is the person responsible for the death of the family in this room?"

Bill scanned the crowd of people and the person seated alongside the defense attorney, Elice, in cuffs staring at him with a glare that masked his feelings. A deceptive glare that the younger man had seen for hundreds if not thousands of days on that lone planet growing up and becoming a scientist. He shifted his gaze off the man with the bright blue eyes on to the prosecutor. Those healthy and familiar blue eyes that were clear, not dulled, not completely covered by a faded blue film that consumed his eyes, alive, so vibrantly alive.

"No."

The court room gasped.

"But, Doctor Smith did sabotage the ship. Did he not?"

"Yes."

"What was the cause of your family's death?"

"Space spiders. They followed us down to the planet in a compartment of the Jupiter 2. Some of the spiders survived."

"How?"

"Doctor Smith was bitten by a spider as my family fled the Proteus, as we lost our protector, he wasn't going to be aboard the ship in the first place."

"Why?"

"Don wanted his eyes on him constantly."

"And your father?"

"He felt that having two pissed off kids in charge of his jail was good enough and were strong enough to withstand his . . ."

"His--?"

"Antics."

"What was he like?"

"Before or after he was bitten?"

"Before the incident."

"Terrified, desperate, angry. Just like we were."

"Only he were lethal if you let him out without the right---"

"OBJECTION!" Elice cried. "Speculation regarding my defendant's status."

"Sustained."

And Elice sat down.

"Only a little more, what?"

Johnston was pacing back and forth behind the booth in front of Bill.

"Annoying."

Smith rolled his eyes.

"Were you there when your family died?"

"Yes."

"Why were you the survivor?"

"Mom had a anti-child and anti-Doctor Smith program installed into the ship after dad and Don left to fetch some more fuel. I couldn't . . . We couldn't---" he paused, lowering his head, wincing then sighed and his shoulders fell as the prosecutor waited patiently. "Doctor Smith couldn't hack through that."

Bill smiled, bitterly, wincing at the irony. 

"I can still hear their screams most nights."

Bill closed his eyes quite in pain at the memory.

"It's hard to get out of my head."

It was quiet at the room as his eyes opened and he smiled quite fondly.

"Then Doctor Smith and Robot became the only company I had, my support, and my protectors."

Bill smiled in nostalgia at the memories that varied in taste and the good times that stood out against the dark ones. He could mentally replay their improvised easter egg hunts with his siblings while Smith watched from a boulder taking a nap after complaining about his scar.

"I could tell you a dozen things that we were together on that planet but none of it would really suit us."

Bill reflected over the issue with a smile. A certain warmth lingered in his chest. It was a rare feeling that was all he had left of what had kept him going every day until his most true, rational, and honest mission was seen through and one that he saw with his heart was the right choice even if it may be another a different version of Death's pointed but vicious jaws.

"We weren't just survivors; we were a family fighting against everything space threw at us and came out triumphant on the other side."

The lone red head in the crowd was drawing away with speed.

"Why did you say that the man responsible for your family's death isn't here?" Johnston asked.

"Because he is not here." Bill's attention shifted on to him.

"Was it your father?" Johnston asked.

"No." Bill replied, briefly looking aside, bemused then shifted his attention back. "He may have lead us to the jaws of Death but it wasn't him who confirmed it."

"How are you certain of that?"

There was a pause in the courtroom as the young man looked aside and Smith arched a brow.

"For all his faults, for all his flaws, Doctor Smith was changed by his scar. It turned him into a monster, just the thing that he called himself and we called him. . . I hypothesize that the spiders came from him---"

"How long did it take for that ability to make baby spiders grow?" Johnston cut off the lone Robinson survivor.

"Three years." Bill replied.

"Who do you blame for the deaths of your family?" Johnston asked.

Bill sighed, lowering his head, going through the memories of the awful maiden voyage.

"If Major West had trusted my little sister with Doctor Smith, I wouldn't be here." Bill's voice became full of disgust and resentment. "And I would have had my family's back while I had Robot on my side. We would have fought together against the planet, against space, and still have made it to Alpha Prime over due or early finding a way to our time."

"I am the only survivor, but what do I know? I am not a strategic military specialist, a experienced pilot---" he leaned into the chair and shrugged with his hands behind his head sporting a grin. "Just a old man who made sure that a little boy could have his family make it to Alpha Prime A and _live_."

"What was your first birthday like?" Johnston asked.

"Painful?" Was Bill's reply at the unexpected question.

"Painful?" Johnston asked. "Sounds like . . . You were not emotionally there. Were you not?"

"I don't know." Bill replied. "I wasn't really feeling anything on that day."

"What happened to your hand?" Johnston moved on to the next subject.

"I was attacked a third time on the way to the simulator to play Halo."

"Is that why you have some suits?" Johnston asked. "As your body guards."

"Yes, I do." Bill admitted to the presence of the figures at the back. "Not for my protection, though. It's for the attackers."

"Why?" Johnston asked, curious, as the crowd leaned forward.

"I happen to know a few names of the Global Sedition's CEOS and volunteers. Memorized them, actually."

"Did you suspect that Colonel Smith was the cause of your family's death?" Smith's eyes became pointed in the direction of the prosecutor, struggling not to roll his eyes, at the questioning.

"Yes."

"Did you lash out at him? Did you hurt him after he became what ate your family? Did it hurt knowing you were living with a monster? Did it hurt knowing he was the cause of the crash? Did it hurt to see every day the creature that took your family away? Did you feel less like a man because you failed to protect your family?" Smith finished whispering into Elice's ear then sat into the chair. "Did you try to kill---"

"Objection!" Elice stood up from her chair, her knuckles on the table, drawing attention off the stand. "Badgering the witness!"

Bill looked back, distantly, as he recalled the blow up that drew a wedge between physical moments with them as the court argued back and forth over the issue. He was silent looking back at the moment and felt a little sorrow at the incident. The only thing that he would see from the older man when he touched him and Bill was allowed to see his changed form was only shame as the older man withdrew his hand. Their relationship in other avenues had been otherwise in mint condition and strong. He remembered how it played out; the words _had_ stung the older man.

The sound of the small hammer echoing ended the loud arguments. Bill snapped to watching Elice listening to the older man with a frown as he continued to speak with a hand grasped around her arm keeping her down to his level as he whispered into her ear. The quite young and unharmed Smith withdrew his hand then waved his hand dismissively as Elice joined the prosecutor up front.

"You may leave the court room." the judge's hand was wrapped around the microphone with attention on Bill. "Thank you for your time."

Bill smiled, well aging, back toward the judge. 

"No problem." 

Bill came out of the booth and made his way out of the court room then trembled feeling certain feelings that had been held up by a dam.

"Hey, could you wait over there?" He pointed toward a statue. "I need to have a private moment to myself."

"Are you okay?" the head agent in charge of his protection looked at Bill in concern.

"Not really." Bill admitted. "I just feel ready to blow. I rather blow, just not in the eyes of the press."

"Okay." the head agent nodded, understandingly. "Just don't go under our radar and do what you did yesterday."

"What?" Bill's brows lifted up incredulously. "It was pretty funny."

"We searched for you for a entire hour while you were at a Disney Ride and popped several balloons!" the head agent reminded.

"So?" Bill laughed, bemused, at the fond memory. "It was pretty fun."

"Mr Robinson, terrifying children and their family is no laughing matter."

"It was worth the hour to myself. It was quite . . . eh, claustrophobic with you around." He shrugged. "I would do it a third time."

"Are you kidding us?"

"No."

The agent to the side glared back at Bill.

"We aren't paid to amuse you."

"Doctor Smith would have ran away and been very difficult to find compared to me." He locked eyes with one of the agents then made a admission. "I didn't anticipate it lasting a hour. Thought it would only last for five minutes."

"You were having fun."

"Yeah. But, it was worth it." Bill looked on, apologetically, toward the agent. "That's bad on me doing that to you. I promise, I will regroup."

"I have your word."

Bill went to the door that read 'staircase' then opened it and went in there. He came down the stairs until he were in the basement then set his back against the wall. The older man's back slid down until he were seated on the floor and his head was tilted up toward the light fixture above him. Then he started to cry at the ugly feelings that came up to the surface. Feelings that he had kept at bay with careful control over himself and suddenly, they were coming pouring out. And Bill started to fell renewed letting go of all the baggage that had built him into the man that fell.


	6. Burning a bridge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How to sour a relationship without intending to, Bill Robinson style.

Bill came to the prison that Smith was being held two days after he had given his testimony regarding the happenings of the doomed mission. Smith was donned in a dark blue uniform that had short sleeves with a black secondary uniform beneath that had long sleeves and a neck collar. His hands were lacking in any form of decorative rings as his figure was slumped in the chair with his fingers on the table clasped together in front of the bar that his cuffs were not chained to.

Everything was fine, save for a newly given black eye that wasn't there two days ago and his eye was swollen. It was quite odd to see him that way but then again, the person who had raised him proved to be annoying so it wasn't hard to believe that he were insisting of his innocence and lied at the wrong moment then been given a beating. A beating that if it had happened on the Jupiter 2 and the whole spider fiasco had been avoided; it would have been Don being the source of the wounds, or better yet, having thrown Smith out the air lock, dusted his hands off, and laughed about it as meteors collided with the doctor's shell leaving gaping wounds behind.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"Did you mend your relationship with your father?"

"No. I don't intend on having one."

"He is your father."

"He is Will's father. Not mine. I don't want to look at the face of the piper. I feel like bile is going to come up every time that I consider going to see him. My entire body reeks with shakes and I feel sick."

"Does this happen all the time?"

"No."

"Are you happy?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I shoulda' came here with my sisters. Mom would never have lasted thirty years without him."

"She lasted for three years without him, Will--Bill. She was a shell of herself but she was efficient as the commander of the ship, was she not?"

Bill stared at Smith, his arms folded, leaning his back against the chair.

"I never mentioned how long ago dad and Don left between the spiders." Bill squinted his eyes back at him.

"The reason why I wanted to talk to you so urgently was to thank you for coming forward with my role in the demise in the Jupiter program." Smith replied.

"Why? Why?" Bill asked, perplexed. "You're going to prison for the rest of your _life_."

"Willia---." Smith stopped himself, closing his eyes, then sighed and opened his eyes lifting his gaze. "It is true that I will be spending a long time behind cold walls, a decent bed, terrible food, but. . ."

"But what?" Bill frowned as his brows furrowed together.

"It is better than being far from home desperately seeking for Alpha Prime A with that bubble headed booby and your polly-anne family." Smith released in one breath

"Buhble--bubble headed booby?" Bill got back up to his feet, his hands smacked on to the table, drawing the younger man's attention up -- who was scowling -- toward him. "You never met Robot!"

"Sit down and lower your voice, please." Smith requested, politely.

"No!" Bill stood up then turned his back to him with his hands in his fists and shook his head. "You're not going to lie to me like my dad did! Like my old monster did! Like everyone did around me."

Smith leaned forward staring toward the man listening, boredly, struggling not to roll his eyes.

"Then you're not a Robinson at all." Smith replied.

"Really, you really want to go down that route!" Bill turned toward Smith. 

Bill turned toward the man with a glare and a growl as the younger man leaned back into the chair and straightened.

"Robinsons listen and decide for themselves if what they have to hear has any merit." Smith seethed.

"Robinsons are not that way to people they know aren't the people who tell the truth."

"Smiths give people a chance and hear them out like Robinsons do." Smith sighed, shaking his head, getting up to his feet getting out from the side. "You are neither Robinson or a Smith."

"Just because I was raised by a monster wearing a last name doesn't mean--"

Smith turned and glared at him with not a sound between them. It was as if Bill had unexpectedly stepped on a nerve or on a war wound that was delicate for the older man. The bright blue eyes were full of tranquil fury with beds of raging seas in them that had lost their calm mood and whatever that had been intended to be told to him, Bill sensed, that he weren't going to hear any of it any further.

It was silent in the room between them for a very long time as if there were hundreds of words that could be said but there were too many to say off the top of the hat and were waiting for most of the out rage to fade to a level where he could speak. The room felt a little more smaller and hotter for Bill inexplicably and he felt like a child once more to the most furious look on Smith's face that he had ever seen.

"You have no dignity, self-respect, or honor aside to your impressive feat of traveling through TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMEEE ITSSSSSSSSSELF!" Smith scornfully told the younger man as his voice raised unexpectedly toward the younger man then it proceeded to lower. "You're wearing a last name just _like_ your old monster." He grew a disgusted look toward Bill. "And it doesn't even belong to you, you fraudulent imposter." 

His words were done in such a way that it were almost, in ways that Bill recognized he were being flipped off tonally by the older man and he proceeded to frown. Bill knew that tone of voice when the older man struck it with a alien visitor after being insulted and he hadn't insulted. Bill's hands started to tremble then his hands rolled into a fist as he registered the heat that was traveling through every vein in his body even making his palm sweat was that of anger. 

"I am NOT a imposter!" Bill shot back.

"Your father may be someone who deserves that treatment but doing that to everyone around you isn't very Will Robinson at all."

"You know nothing about what a Robinson is, Doctor Smith." Bill argued. "You never have spent time around me or my family for longer than a hour."

Smith went toward the door leading back to the cell closing his eyes.

"You decided not to listen to me before you came in to this room. You're worse than I am. You're worse than the major."

"I am _nothing_ like that idiot!"

Smith pressed a button then the door opened as the younger man lowered his head.

"I don't know the real you, my dear sir." Smith sighed then lifted his head up. "But I find myself thankful that I don't know you."

"Me too." Bill said. 

"If I did know you, it would hurt a lot to walk out of here." Smith's voice became softer with that comment.

And Smith walked out with guards by his side then Bill left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And to lose the opportunity to say goodbye.


	7. Severing a voice

"So, you want your vocal cords severed?"

Smith nodded.

"Why do you want a prison inmate operation for something so important before your trial conclude?"

Smith wasn't responsive to the question to the person with him in his cell.

"You are a talker. And having no voice?" Smith wore his poker face. "That would be hell to you."

"Hell pales in comparison to reliving three years in space for a eternity, my dear." Smith replied.

"What would you want, your tongue removed?"

"Don't be so ahead of yourself," Smith shook his head. "I like my tongue dearly."

"Yes, but why your vocal cords?"

"Nobody wants to listen to my answer when they ask me, _why did you plead guilty_?" It was silent between them in the small cell. "They call me insane, mad, waiting to plead insanity."

"You will have no voice at the trial!"

"What is the point of talking when no one believes a word I say?" Smith asked.

"Okay. . ." The inmate replied. "I see where you are coming from. So, what is this to you?"

"Heaven. Heaaaaveeen!" he leaned back, his hands linked behind his head, dancing his feet on the shelf with a laugh. "No threatening aliens. Not having to repeat a old line of mine to get a certain result. Or. . . Or. . . Or having a relationship reset."

"So, your friend---"

"Visitor." Smith cut her off.

"Did you tell him?"

"He is not interested in hearing what I have to say." He leaned forward. "Thought I knew him in different versions of this nasty paradox but it turns out I didn't."

"What does this make you in his story?"

"Abosolutely nothing because I mean _so little_ to him as does my counterpart."

"But, it sounds like he is the villain and you're. . ." The inmate rubbed her figners together searching for the word then shrugged. "Not a hero, just a victim?"

"No." Smith frowned, glaring back, shaking his head. "Never a victim. Passer by."

"So, what if he comes for you?" she lifted a thin brow. "After the trial is over?"

"Believe me, my dear surgeon, he won't."

"You don't know that for certain."

"Will would have visited me before his testimony. He wouldn't have listened to my older self."

"Oh."

"He will get far away as possible from me and everything that reminds him of his family and start healing from the life that he once knew. Somewhere green, somewhere alive, somewhere better." He smiled at the thought that eased his mind on the thought. "That is the only solace I take."

"You haven't exactly answered my question, 756498273."

Smith winced at the mention of his prison number then sighed, exasperated.

"When his life is sorted out, he will have to learn that certain words can't be taken back." Smith said. "That is the life of a adult in civilization."

"What words?" The inmate's features loosened. 

"Words about monsters." Smith said, softly. 

"And what about them?"

"Only monsters make comments that he does and it turns out, I am not the monster I thought I was." He looked aside, somberly, but then grew a small smile briefly on the matter that faded. "I am just the lackey." Smith sounded disappointed in the younger man. "I honestly thought he believe monsters were people, names and all, but turns out that he didn't and it broke my heart." he lowered his head, ashamed, then shook it with a sigh. He sat down on to the edge of the bed. "I rather not speak to him or to anyone else."

The inmate handed him the mask.

"I rather enjoy this newfound freedom without my own comments having to bite back at me." Smith finished.

"Okay, Doctor."

"Thank you, truly." He put his hand on the inmate's shoulder. "How can I repay you?"

"I need a little gift. For my little girl. Um, it's, one of those, er, um. . ." Smith stared at her waiting for the inmate to get the words out. "That cute wolf-lion with tentacles, horns, wings, and sharp claw---."

"Ah, the wolf-dog!" Smith exclaimed. "Yes, I can do that." the younger woman nodded back at the inmate. "I can make you the puppy version."

"And a safe guard, can you make it . . . a--"

"Unable to be used as a killing weapon. A small sleeping cub is what you want?"

"Yes!"

"I need a shiv for that. I will find the other materials on my own and it will be the cutest but ugliest thing you have seen."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Got any last words?"

Without a word, Smith put the mask on his face, rested on the bed, then he was out. The inmate looked toward the door then slid the curtain side. She set the tools of her trade alongside herself on a small surface then proceeded to withdraw the blanket from below the man's neck. She slipped out a small padd and regarded it for a moment as her guide looking over the fact to make sure the operation was going to be carried out properly. She sterilized the skin with some alcohol then proceeded to make the cut under the resting younger man. 

"Last words being that. . . And he didn't even swear at me like the others do." And she carefully did as he had so preciously traded his golden crowns for.


	8. Hacking through the firewalls

"Huh, that's weird."

"What is it, Penny?"

Will looked toward his sister as she were seated on the couch alongside him with a laptop on her lap, her head lowered, the bright blue light covering her facial features as she squinted at the bright screen.

"It looks like something got into the firewall of the house." Penny noted.

"How did you find out when you're supposed to put on Hellraiser for the holo-projector?"

Penny rolled her eyes then turned toward Will.

"It just stands out like a sore thumb, Will." Penny replied.

"How?" Will asked as her attention returned to the screen.

"Whoever hacked the visual screen system was really sloppy." Penny noted then changed the screen with her fingers bouncing on the keyboard. "Looks like they just hacked the security system and just watched us when we were sleeping."

"When we were sleeping!" Will gasped then started to get up from the couch. "We have to tell dad and mom--"

"Oh, it looks like this hacker has only watched us when we have been sleeping."

Will turned on the heels of his feet toward Penny.

"How can you tell?"

"The time stamps," Penny replied, as she pointed toward the screen, her pale finger below the time stamps and Will looked closely. "Mom and dad are usually fast asleep during these times."

"How do you know?" Will turned his attention toward Penny.

"Let's just say," Penny said as her lips thinned and the edges of her lips curled into a smile. "I have done some of my own hacking when building up my mad computer skills."

"Mad computer skills. Right." Will laughed, falling into the couch, with his hands on his stomach in bemusement. "You are the one mad with manipulating technology."

"Oh, says the inventor, as he takes apart another prototype of a small robot and doesn't try hacking the programming of a toy robot in his room."

Will frowned looking toward her as Penny put the computer on to the table and took out the popcorn bag.

"It is a play toy." Will said.

"Will, just ask dad to get you one." Penny said. "I don't see why you take apart kitchen material and make a duplicate of the toy robot."

"No." Will shook his head as the movie began to play. "I just want to be ready for when we have to work with the rambler model and he needs help."

"The best way you can help him is by reading the manual." Penny patted on his shoulder with a smile. "Ssssh! It's starting!"

Will turned his attention upon the screen.

"Penny."

"Yes?"

"Can we watch Alien instead?" Will asked. "I heard the first two movies and the alien vs predator are good from Judy."

"Which is grosser; a man being ripped apart by chains or a creature bursting out a chest?" Penny turned her attention on to Will.

"A man being ripped apart." Will replied.

"COMPUTER, PAUSE!" Penny announced in the nick of time. "Phew. That was close."

* * *

At the entrance of the prison, from within, a bright blue light appeared taking on a figure two days after the event in which that severed the former federal employee had his vocal cords severed. Two days of relative silence came from him as he cared for his throat as prescribed by the surgeon with little to no noise as he recovered and opted out eating for awhile keeping it elusive that he had done it.

The figure made a run for it down the corridor taking twist and turns until arriving to the central hub of the prison holding a small device that beeped with cell that was passed and it grew louder by the passing cell. He came to a pause in front of the cell doors then put a device along the side of the bars. The bars retreated then the figure came through the doorway entering into the narrow cell.

The figure came over to the man's side then proceeded to shake him. Smith bolted up from the bed and put his back against the wall with widened eyes clenching on to the blanket. The figure slid up their visor and smiled. Smith's heart skipped a beat as he stared at the face that he hadn't seen in a million years then applied his fingers to his throat.

"W-w-w-w-William?" it came out quite airy.

The fourteen year old smiled back.

"There you are, Doctor Smith."

Smith crashes upon him with a hug, tightly.

"Hey, we've _all_ missed you." His voice wasn't high pitched but now deeper than how Smith had last remembered.

The younger man patted on the older man's shoulder. Then he backed out and felt along the face of the grinning boy. A face that he thought he would never see again. He stared at him in awe, noting how a little more grown that he looked the last time that he had last seen him. He had only been just thirteen. Time passed from the original timeline that he came from and he knew this boy was from his timeline. It was a gut feeling. And he seemed to have a stubble that was forming along his lips.

"Come on home, dad got your immunity all set up and got your body waiting aboard the Jupiter 2." Smith lifted a brow. "We yanked it out of Time." his friend shook his hand with a laugh. "Believe me, that wasn't easy." Smith relaxed where he was from the tone of his old friend's voice. "It's a long story."

Smith looked at him, quite confused.

"Take my hand and don't let go."

Smith looked up toward him, uncertain, frightened, half in disbelief.

"Dad and Don are distracting the military police right now so I can get you back." Smith tentatively reached out taking the younger man's hand. "We've been waiting for years just to get you back with the right level of technology." He looked at the man's neck. "Doctor Smith, what did you do to your throat?"

Smith smiled then gestured toward the opening.

"You'll explain everything afterwards, will you?"

Smith's smile grew tearful with a nod.

"Okay, just put this on. The Doctor Smith of this timeline isn't going to be happy finding out this mess you've left him in."

Smith shrugged then took the offered helmet and they ran off out of the cell. A red light echoed from corridor to corridor as they fled. The security chief on duty scrambled up from the chair then watched as they fled through the corridor. The chief pressed buttons at a time and barriers fell behind them. The older man squeezed the younger man's hand, terrified, keeping up with him at a reasonable pace.

They ran to the dead end then a bright blue light illuminated from where they had crashed into. Smith's figure fell and the helmet was off. He turned over to his side as the security of the prison exited from their posts then the doors were opened one by one. They surrounded the unconscious man who flopped over on to his back. His eyes adjusted to the dark and the distinctive red hue then opened his mouth.

No sound came from him as he proceeded to ask and hear his voice in his head loudly, "Hello?"

Smith was lifted up to his feet by two prison guards then dragged into his cell and thrown inside where he crashed and looked out.

Then he collapsed; quite out of it.

* * *

Will slipped open the computer then inserted a program, while Penny slept, that opened the programming that Penny had opened. With a few navigation of the console that she had conjured up on the screen, Will was able to find exactly where the hacker came from. He stared at the otherwise boring house then changed it to the living room. He deleted the access to the apartment and made sure the doors between the firewall lost the key that Penny had forged out of code.

"Hello, Will Robinson." Robot said.

Will stared at the screen of what was the wavelength of the voice.

"Uh. . . Hello?" Will replied.

The screen glowed red.

"You have questions." Robot acknowledged.

Will looked around, his eye scanning for cameras, then his attention shifted toward the screen.

"Who are you?"

"I am the family environmental protector." Robot replied. "I am the Rambler Crane Model from 2088."

"Woah," Will said, wowed. "That is cool."

"It. . . lost its appeal over time living in the future."

"Do you have a body?" Will asked.

"Negative." Robot's sounded mechanically sad. "Doctor Smith confiscated my sensor disk and tossed me out. What advanced replacement that I had is destroyed."

"That must suck for you." Will said with a pout. "It must be terrible unable to be there physically."

"On the contrary, it does not." Robot replied.

"Why?" Will asked.

"I get to see the unit that I was supposed to ensure slept well and were protected at Alpha Prime A. My rambler model would have been . . ."

"Been what, Robot?"

"A bit noticeable and alarming."

"I guess it would be." Will snickered then laughed on at the comment. "So, will you testify against Doctor Smith at the trial. . . So---"

"I will not answer any questions pertaining to Doctor Smith."

"I was gonna ask if you were friends with him."

"I cannot answer that." Robot replied, flatly. "Do not ask me any questions pertaining to my relationship with Doctor Smith. I---"

"Cannot answer them." Will finished.

"Yes." Robot replied. "How are you, Will?"

"I guess, I. . . I . . I don't know what to feel. I am happy that I get to stay on Earth a little longer, dad is actually acknowledging that I exist and important, Penny and dad are back on the same page, Judy and Don are. . . er. . . Not speaking to each other after Judy requested that Don not be the pilot because they are not getting along so that is posing to be a bit of a pickle. And it's giving dad a headache because Don is so misogynistic according to Judy and mom. And Don, I.. . I. . . I heard him call Judy a crazy woman."

There was silence.

"Robot, are you still there?" Will asked.

"Affirmative." Robot replied. "If Major West is to become a valuable and beloved member of the expedition then he needs to be taught a lesson in how you treat a equal."

"Do you know how to teach that lesson?" Will asked.

"Affirmative." Robot replied. "Everything that he owns, everything that he has, will give him the treatment that he treated her."

"Thanks, Robot." Will said.

"And if he does not understand, I will provide him the answer and the lesson." Robot said.

"Good-night, Robot." Will said. "See you in ten years?"

"He will." Robot said. "Good night."

Will closed the laptop then looked over toward his sister leaned against his shoulder fast asleep drooling away. Will set the computer aside where he had retrieved it then got comfortable on the couch and his eyes slowly closed feeling certain that everything was going to be okay. It was going to be okay. It was going to work out and it was going to be better than it was before.


	9. In the General's office

Bill awoke the following morning with a yawn over the sounds of beeping. The familiar noise that told him here was a message waiting for him. He took out his uniform then headed for the shower. Bill went to the shower then the sonic shower vibrated the filth off his figure. He exited the shower and changed into his orange matching outfit and boots that matched the color. Bill twirled on his heels as he sang to himself, "Oooh, I feel good! oH OH HO hoh I feeel good!"

Bill exited the shower rubbing his neck with his towel.

"Robot, read message."

"Can we have a sleep over? Sent by Bluewiz65."

"No." Bill replied. "I am too. . ." He grimaced. "Robot delete the last three words."

With a chirp was deleted.

"Will, It's just not right to have two counterparts in the same room having a sleep over after the first one isn't ready to have responsibility over the second one."

Bill sighed.

"Will, I know you like to get to know me."

Bill paused, folding his arms, lowering his gaze.

"But, I don't know myself being somewhere I have fought for all my life and I have nothing to do."

And that was the worst of all to admit.

"I am hoping I find myself in a better environment, to a place that I chose, to a place I want to be, somewhere that is _alive_. Somewhere that does not remind me what I came from, how I got there, and what my past was. Somewhere that reminds me that there is a better tomorrow. That there is hope. And the world isn't dark as I think it is."

He reflected over the dark edges of the world that he had grown up on alongside the man that mutated day by day until he were a alien.

"Will, if you like to honor me then have a family movie night." Bill finished. "Robot, please send."

"Message has been sent." Robot's voice chirped.

"Thanks, buddy." Bill thanked.

"You have a group simulator request." Robot announced.

"What kind of request?" Bill became surprised.

"Racing cars." Bill's surprise faded replaced by a smile. "Keyword detected is Lightning McQueen."

"Confirm request."

Bill pressed a few buttons on the food 3-D printer and watched his meal be layered one at a time as he whistled to himself.

"You have a request to speak with General Goddard at twelve thirty-three in the afternoon."

"Be there. Send message."

"Message sent."

* * *

Smith tapped on the shoulder of a inmate.

"Where would you like?"

Smith pointed down toward his lower region then toward the wall.

"Ahhh, bathroom."

Smith nodded.

"Take three turns, go straight, take two rights, turn left, then after three minutes, then turn right, and another left and you should be there."

Smith smiled and waved back at the prison inmate who gave him the reminder. He strolled through the corridor passing by people that dwindled in number until it were only him. He was paused in his tracks by the prison inmate that operated on him and gave a abrupt hug.

"My daughter loves the gift, Doctor Smith. Thank you."

There was no time to react as the hug was brief just as it were done and the older woman walked on by him as he watched her go. He shook his head then walked inside of the bathroom and fell to the ground with a hard punch to the face. He collided against the wall with a thud then three figures loomed over him and continued what they had started delivering sharp kicks into him. After several kicks, Smith abruptly flipped on to his side then sent the other inmates falling to the ground and tackled the third standing one down.

Smith made a run for it clenching on to his side then fell to his feet landing against the adjoining wall and the next a sharp pain sent him falling to the ground. He lifted himself up but was delivered a sharp kick to the side that came with no warning He looked over spotting that his attackers were in the middle of getting up when his other eye was struck. Smith threw himself back landing to the floor behind him falling down a slight level in the universal bathroom. He bounced up to his feet then proceeded to knock down the attacker and make a run for it.

He fled from the bathroom skidding on the heels of his feet. He fell down a corridor from the bathroom crashing against the wall. His bloodied hand grasped along the wall then slid down slowly as he panted briefly. He looked on toward the men that was sprinting after him. He got back up to his feet and proceeded to make a desperate bid of escape. He was caught by the two attackers grabbing him by the shoulder then threw him against the wall. The two attackers were rejoined by the third attacker and resumed what they had started.

Smith's agile hands caught a boot then punched the knee out to the attacker with his eyes closed. With some difficulty, he was able to surprise the two men and shove them against the other down the corridor. He made a mad dash for it as the third attacker got back up to their feet then chase after him with a shiv in one hand. He tried to scream but no voice would come forth as he used the walls alongside him as his support while hunched over fleeing from the attackers.

Finally, after what felt to be a eternity, Smith reached a group of inmates sitting along the edge of a window reading novels. He grasped along the shoulder of a inmate then his grip fell as the inmate's attention was torn off the novel and shoved his hand off their shoulder. Smith could only hear their scream as he sunk further to the ground with several shiv wounds in his back and one prominent one along his shoulder blade. One of the inmates looked up, their eyes widening, then made a run for it.

"HELP! SOMEONE! HELP! We got a wounded here!"

And Smith was out.

* * *

It was the following afternoon that Bill returned to Mission Control for the first time in a very long time. It had been almost a eternity in space away from civilization. It was far stranger to have eyes on him as he passed through the hall, through the curved entrance, up the platform leading into the open office. The general directed Bill to seat himself at a nearby chair and the younger man obeyed his request. The suits waited outside of the room.

"Bill, what did you say to him?"

Bill fought back the urge to roll his eyes. The general wasn't interested in saying his name.

"I told Doctor Smith ' _just because the monster had a name attached to it_ \---"

"Don't tell me you finished that stupid comment." A growl came forth.

And suddenly, the easy going and approachable atmosphere was gone soon as a death glare came from the general.

"He stopped me." Bill said.

The general leaned forward, his hands cupped together, somberly.

"Is that why he severed his vocal cords?"

Bill stared at the general, blinking, caught off guard.

"Because no one was really listening to him?"

Bill didn't really know what to say.

"Did you really intend to finish that comment with ' _means that was a person raising me_ '?"

Bill didn't have anything to say on the matter.

"Bill, ever since he tried to make a run for it, he hasn't been exactly trying to speak to anyone. I think he relearned very quickly that no one is willing to give him a minute of their time and listen to what he has to say.."

"He made a--what?" Bill leaned forward.

"He made a break for with a accomplice."

Bill's brows raised.

"Global Sedition?" Bill suggested.

The general shook his head.

"The face hasn't come up with any results on file or public surveillance."

"No one has the face of his attempted rescuer." Bill said.

"Bill." the general locked eyes with him. "What was he going to say to you in that meeting?"

"I don't know." Bill shrugged.

"I think you _do_. Because that man is acting differently." The general's words grew edged on the matter. "He was surprised to see that his lawyer pay a visit to him to this morning."

Bill's poker face went away.

"Can you show me the face of his rescuer?" Bill asked.

"Sure."

The general typed on the padd then the holographic figure appeared across from them. Bill approached the holographic figure in awe, confusion, and bewilderment.

"Who is it?"

Bill stared at the blue holographic face that was grinning back at him.

"I know that face." Bill said.

The general tilted his head.

"Alien?"

Bill shook his head.

"No." Bill stared on toward the familiar face.

"Then who or what is it?" The general's head straightened.

"That is my face when I was almost a teenager." He turned toward the general, if only briefly, then back toward the boy. "I think I broke a consistent paradox."

"A loop with no end?"

"And no beginning." Bill said.

"It does have a end _and_ a beginning." The general replied as he got up and joined the younger man's side then pointed toward the window with a thumb. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have made it to the beginning."

"It's the only way that makes sense why he acted the way that he did with me." Bill said.

"And the way that he is acting now."

"Yes." Bill confirmed with a nod.

"So, that means the original Will rescued him." The general held up a finger and grinned.

"That's the short end of it." Bill nodded back then sheepishly shrugged. "And technically . . . no."

"Technically no?" The general became startled. "How?"

Bill sighed turning toward the patiently listening older man who raised what was left of his brows at the response that was being delivered.

"The original Will never made it far off the planet with his family." he came over toward the chair then looked out the window as he carefully reflected over the possibility. "I am _that_ Will."

The general stepped aside then turned away from the hologram and pressed a few buttons on the padd.

"Just how did the time loop start . . ." The general looked up toward the younger man. "Before or after his betrayal?"

Bill turned toward the general.

"Probably before." Bill was almost quite distant to the older man as he recalled the past. "Before we got aboard the Jupiter 2."

"It may be that the time loop started when we got a alarm about his fiances by his bank that had been recently deposited." The general mulled over the thought. "We had him sectioned off to his lab and then a disgruntled machine broke him out of it. It looked quite a lot like Rambler Crane without the upper half---"

"A alternate timeline." Bill said. "Originally, he sneaked aboard before personnel were cleared off the Jupiter 2 and hitched a ride among the cargo." He became puzzled as he approached the older man. "Why did the prosecution only ask me about my family's death instead of that?"

"Bill, you were a child back then. And you weren't awake when it happened." The general sighed as he leaned against the desk with his arms folded. "They want your friend to testify."

"He is ready."

"We got a small but portable model that your rambler crane model can take." He patted on the small object in his hands. "It is based off the one that we chased but a lot more . . ."

"A lot more what?"

"Uh, innocent, is what the lead designers said." The general shook the padd then approached him once making some adjustments to it then set it into his lap. "Said he was based off the legendary Robby the Robot designed by Robert Kinoshita and had dozens of creative tweaks."

The general handed the padd to Bill.

"Robot looks so primitive." Bill commented once giving the schematic a scan.

"The cheapest design as of far for one time use." the general walked about the room then paused an turned toward the man. "But . . ."

"But, what?" Bill's eyes were immediately on the general.

The general winced. "He will need to be transferred from glass to tape." The general was handed back the padd. "You can transfer him from disk to tape, can you?"

"I have already transferred Robot from disk to machine so I can't see why not." The general grinned at the younger man's response. "It can be removed from the glass. . ."

"However. . ." The general added, waiting for Bill to finish, his head down cast with his gaze on Bill in anticipation.

"It is really expensive on Earth."

"Oooooh, that process." The general smirked as he raised his head up. "Just to remove the data from the chip and leave not a bread crumb, not a shadow, not a faint marker of his programming behind." His demeanor changed. "Are you sure about this?"

"I am sure." Bill replied.

The general laughed.

"Use _his_ money."

Bill became alarmed, shocked, stunned.

"Isn't that part of his trial?" Bill asked.

The general smiled back at Bill.

"The only way to make bad money good is to use it for a better purpose." He shook his hand approaching the desk. "We can look the other way."

"But his defense--"

"Elice won't even notice." The general assured Bill with a laugh as he cut him off. "Besides, the federal government is paying her. You will be the only one who notices."

"And what about the news?"

"The news won't care if it is for the trial. Just a small footnote in the news as will his existence will become." The general sat down into the chair then held his two fingers close together. "Just a small tiny footnote with no identification just written as a ' _a member of the mission control staff attempted to sabotage the rambler crane model but was halted by a man from the future_ '." his fingers parted as his eyes shifted from his hand toward the younger man. "Is that any bit of acceptable?"

"His name not tarnished for the rest of history and my chosen name out of the news . . ." After a moment looking aside, Bill nodded with a grin that lit him up. "It is."

"Alright then." And it was mutually agreed upon.

"What day would you like Robot to testify?" Bill asked.

"In a few days." The general replied.

"I like to see the cheap model." Bill said.

The general smiled then gestured toward a wooden box.

"Just slide the door open behind you." The general replied

Bill stepped alongside the container that he had just noticed. The younger man laughed, shaking his head, at his reaction. The lone Robinson survivor slipped it open then the door fell with a clatter causing him to jump up then look inside to see the newcomer. He looked in spotting a machine that was roughly shorter by two inches than him. He approached the machine and peered in with one hand on the side of the doorway and admired it.

"So . . ." The general said. "what do you think?"

Bill stepped back.

"Pretty good." Bill said. "Just wondering what his power source is."

"Solar." The general was quite proud on the subject. "He is decorated in solar panels. His shell is one giant solar panel."

"Blends in well enough." He patted on the chassis of the machine.

"He does have back up solar batteries that kick in should he be in the dark and be unable to recharge after twenty-four hours." The general said then chuckled to himself. "They call him Gunter." Bill smiled on the matter toward the empty machine. "As of this moment, he is the mascot of the cybernetics department."

"Is that for emergency purposes?" Bill asked. "Or is he a emergency replacement should something happen to the rambler crane models in the Jupiter program?"

"We have to be prepared." The general said, darkly. "Global Sedition tried to kill our thorn a hour ago with three inmates ambushing him. Unluckily for them, he survived the ordeal."

Bill snickered, quite amused, much to the alarm of the older man on the issue.

The general stared at Bill for a good moment quite out of the loop on the humor so he continued on his report.

"Currently recovering in the hospital wing but we're moving him to a super max for his safety." The general continued. "Judge Jude is accepting the transfer for that purpose."

Bill turned his attention on to the general.

"We are going to have this trial with a collapsed building, a building with solar power deactivated, or a falling building; hell or high water, what happened that day will be heard."

Warmth was in Bill's eyes as he faced the older man, fondly.

"You can bet on that, General Goddard." Bill said then put the door up and blocked the machine then patted along it with a grin.


	10. Robot's pop up at court

Three days after Bill visited Mission Control, Robot was driven over to court by the lone Robinson survivor. Robot relayed over the information of the fatal day that devastated the Robinsons, the well being of the saboteur, Earth, and the colonization of Alpha Prime A. Settling into a newer but older frame came with its perks and its flaws as part of a model felt less heavier. He felt different, lighter, better, and more whole than he had since he had his original model. His green dashboard reported with long range analysis leading him to where he needed to be following after Bill and the suits. 

Bill paused then gestured Robot on into the court room and walked away. Robot's upper half twirled away from the lone Robinson survivor then toward the newly forged future. The doors came open with a heavy clatter and the machine rolled in to the room with attention all on him. His sensors detected the presence of the Robinsons in attendance at the back watching him wheel in slowly and the gate was slid open for him. He moved with precision to the booth that lacked a chair for his testimony. He turned around and faced the crowd even the familiar face that he hadn't seen in person for over twenty-seven years.

"Would you like to swear on the holy bible?"

"I do not want to swear on the holy bible." Robot replied as Smith's dulled look flashed to a ' _what'_ at the machine that had referred to itself as everyone acted it wasn't out of the ordinary. "I require a law book."

Jude held a book with a exasperated sigh.

"I expected this." Jude said.

The book was handed to the person and Robot put a red claw on the law book then held the other claw up.

"Do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth or so help you God?"

"I solemnly swear to tell the truth of the launch of the Jupiter 1 and the maiden voyage of the Robinsons." Robot replied.

Robot's arms slid back in as the law book was handed back to the judge.

"Robot, who sabotaged you?" Johnston asked.

"My access log reports that Doctor Zachary Smith was the last one who turned me on if only briefly for a reprogramming."

"How are your access reports in your new frame?" Johnston inquired.

"They have not changed." Robot said.

"Alright then. . ." Johnston paced back and forth in front of the counter standing five feet away from Robot. "Robot, how did it happen? Take us back to that fateful day."

"I awoke from my slumber approximately eight hours after being sabotaged to find Doctor Smith attempting to stop me."

Murmurs came from the crowd as the young Will Robinson stared at the saboteur quite perplexed -- the same expression that his family wore -- while the general's burning rage was replaced by a facepalm once his head fell into his hand. The on lookers and reporters were baffled. Smith only stared at the direction of the machine.

Robot was quiet as the attorney put a hand on the counter once approaching the machine and stared at him. Certain sorrow was radiating from the machine that lowered the helm down with a clunk and his figure leaned forward with his claws extended out emulating a person who was looking at blood soaked hands.

"Doctor Smith was unable to undo what he had started." Robot finished, quite sadly.

Smith leaned forward, his hands clasped under his chin, intrigued as he caught on to the tone of Robot's voice and fascinated. _He sounds so human._

"Why was it that he remained?" Johnston asked.

Robot straightened up in the chair.

"Doctor Judy Robinson had a medical report of a burn on his hand." Robot reported to the lawyer. "His employers tried to kill him as they have in prison."

"What attempts?" Johnston asked.

"They needed no lose ends."

"What attempts have been posed on his life?" Johnston asked once more.

"Electrocuted him quite severely but it wasn't enough to fry his brain and leave him unable to act."

"This information hasn't been released to the general public." Johnston said. "This can't be from here."

"From this court room?" Robot replied as Smith looked aside. "Negative."

The prosecutor sighed, annoyed.

"What happened _after_ you got to the bridge?"

"I went on a rampage to destroy the Robinson expedition. Doctor Smith wounded himself then deactivated the cryostasis pods with severe difficulty that ended up disabling the cryostasis pods. Major West was the first member who awoke then it was Professor John Robinson and Professor Maureen Robinson. Penny and Will were next. Doctor Judy Robinson did not awaken from the cryostasis pod so Doctor Smith had her be taken by anti-gravity bed to sick bay as the ship was headed to the sun. Professor John Robinson sent the ship into hyper drive."

Smith paled looking toward the machine, so confused, so alarmed, so in disbelief of something that never happened. And most of all to Robot's mind wave equipment, the older man was becoming increasingly frightened of returning to the pits of Hell and never coming back out of it. The same kind of fear that he had seen upon Smith when cornered with him and surrounded by law enforcement after being framed while Will was fast asleep aboard the Jupiter 2 and he had to step up to the plate. Only, he couldn't spare him.

It wasn't just the tremble in him that gave him the idea of how the saboteur was feeling. It wasn't how his fingers were clenching into the desk and leaving claw marks as they slid down the table keeping his gaze on the machine as he regained his composure. Smith was so angry that it were happening and he couldn't say a word to stop it from proceeding. That he was being put away by a man instead of a machine that he had no small part in building up from a small artificial intelligence to someone putting him away. Someone he helped be designed in purpose with psychology in hand about handling the environment and protecting the family from what dangers lurked among it.

This was enough to make Robot have a long mechanical cackle.

"Is there something amusing, Rambler Crane?" Johnston asked.

"I am not a Rambler Crane model." Robot clarified to the prosecution. "Call me Robot."

"Is there something amusing about this?" Johnston amended.

"Affirmative. The one family that he tried to kill were the ones to be his saviors. . ." Robot chuckled, softly, on the matter. "He thought they were in that moment. But, they were not in the end."

"What happened after?" Johnston asked, fiddling his fingers in his lap, his eyes on the machine.

"From there, Doctor Judy Robinson was resuscitated by CPR then Doctor Smith was locked in a cell by Professor John Robinson after Major West returned with information about the sabotage. Will Robinson and Penny Robinson acted as his jailers." Robot went on. "Doctor Smith was very unhappy and demanded to be released from his cell."

"Was he?"

"A week after Professor John Robinson and Major West left through a time bubble."

"What happened to the time bubble, Robot?"

"It vanished shortly after according to the ship's logs. It reappeared a short time later with attackers -- we discovered they were a rescue team after checking their tags and equipment -- then it disappeared."

"And they never came back?"

"Never."

"What happened the day that the portal was made?"

"We waited for the portal to become big enough for transport. Once it were large enough, Doctor Smith allowed him to go. And threw me out. Then Doctor Smith, the Jupiter 2, and the planet were destroyed by the rapidly proceeding implosion. And that was that."

Smith finished typing on a padd then slid it over toward Elice.

"That's enough questions." Johnston said.

"Is that it?" Jude asked.

"No, your honor." Elice approached the machine. "Robot, have you. . . Did you . . Did you make your farewell to Doctor Smith?"

Robot's antenna sensors and helm twirled.

"Our relationship was built on the fact that we wouldn't say say good-bye when the end came."

Elice's brows raised in surprise.

"Why?" Elice said. "A relationship can be built over many things, mutual dislike, mutual likes, hobbies, bonding---but this relationship described by your friend sounds to be one that doesn't fall apart easily."

"Because it would mean that his existence was to end." Robot said. "And so would mine."

"Does it hurt?" Elice asked.

"I do not ache." Robot said.

"Oh." Elice asked. 

" _Yet_." Robot said.

"Why?" Elice asked. 

"Because he still exists." Robot pointed toward the defendant.

Elice turned toward Smith then back toward Robot.

"As a human." Elice said.

"Affirmative." Robot said.

"But, he is a different person." Elice folded her arms. "Is he not?"

"I cannot answer that question." Robot said.

"It's a complicated question for you." Elice said. "Being a spider--"

"And in constant agony. Yes." Smith looked away mulling it over. "It _is_ a complicated question."

"What was his mental health like?" Elice asked.

Robot was quiet as his helm twirled.

"What was his mental health like . . ." Robot repeated to himself then laughed then bobbed his helm up. "The one thing that he is good at is lying and keeping up a facade even as his entire being was being mutated on a daily basis. He had his good days just as Bill and as did we. . . We were a team. Always had the others back. _Always_." Robot emphasized on the last word. "It was always I, Doctor Smith, and Bill Robinson against the very beings that killed Hope."

"What happened down there?" Elice asked.

"We made friends. We tried to help them off. Their ships didn't have enough to help us. The planet killed them. Their troubles killed them."

"Which was it?" Elice furrowed her brows. "The planet or their troubles?"

". . . It was a mix of both." Robot admitted to her. "The terrain . . . The forest. . . . It was dark and it had equally as dark lifeforms. It was quite a large landscape to cover."

"But now, it is just you and him against the world." Elice said. "Isn't it weird that he isn't there?"

"As a matter of fact, it is."

"Do you hate for him it?" Elice asked.

"I dislike how Major West dragged him along and his decision forced him to stay behind." Robot's words were full of anger. "But, Doctor Smith made the right decision regarding his place."

"What do you think would have happened if he came back?"

"If he returned, he would have either tried to take over the world or have been specially taken down, sedated, and tested like a lab rat. And I would have not had been able to do a single thing while a monster was born." It was completely quiet in the large and rectangle room. "No. . . a animal."

Elice nodded, turning away from him, facing the direction of the saboteur who held up the padd with the text on large print then she turned around.

"To have a soul, Robot, is a controversial and complex thing," she turned toward Robot. "Do you feel blessed to have it?"

"I do not believe you want the answer to that."

"We do, we do." She stretched her arms out and grinned as she gestured around the room. "We have been talking about Doctor Smith enough, how about we talk about you in general?"

"I do not feel blessed." Robot admitted. "I feel, so many things, in the demise of the Robinson expedition and the utter failure of never reaching Alpha Prime A. I could have proven to be their protector with or without being in control by a different member of the colonists. I. . ."

"You, what, Robot?"

"I feel sad most days on our little planet, I could have grown with the Robinsons as a person. I could have spent time getting to know the colonists even better. Bill could have grown up with his siblings."

Robot became silent as he continued on in his processor in his tirade as the court room looked upon him in pity. Smith leaned back into the chair tapping on the table with his fingers staring toward the machine with a sigh. Robot was being directed by rows of pity from everyone in the room including the Military Police. 

"Bill wouldn't have needed to build the machine if you hadn't encountered the source of the spiders." Elice said.

_And Doctor Smith could have gotten the opportunity to have aged as a human, miserable, sorrowful, but old and spent a far better existence in space if it hadn't been for the Major's foolish stupid decision. We could have found a way to bring everyone home._

"We could have had everything If Major West hadn't been such a ninny." Robot finished his train of thought out loud. Robot reflected on the matter with disdain traced in his very circuits, cables, and heat detectors. "In Doctor Smith's words." His helm twirled as he laughed in bemusement as the air was cleared. "Mine are more vulgar."

Elice's features softened upon Robot as she put her hands on the counter.

"You're bitter about that, aren't you?" Elice acknowledged.

"So would you be in my position." Robot lifted his helm up and leaned up so it appeared that he were glaring back at the defense. "So would you."

"Robot, are you happy to be a person?" Elice asked.

"What it took to get to this position in advancing my programming to have free will, negative." Robot replied.

"Is putting Doctor Smith in prison beneficiary?" Elice asked.

"He would never have the opportunity to be taken out into space and enjoy the delicacies of life, terrible food, people, signs of civilization around him, and get to spend his life span on a planet of his choosing."

Smith was looking off distantly then smiled at the last part as he were half listening, mulling about the events that wrecked his counterpart, events that he could have been forced to become part of, events that he may never had been able to have a hand personally when it came to his counterpart's control over him.

"You didn't answer the question, Robot." Elice said.

"It is." Robot said.

"For you or for him?" Elice prodded forth.

"Both of us." Robot recalled the misery the man was in as he changed and sulked. "You never had to live with his yearning for Earth. How homesick that he was. . ." Robot mechanically sighed as his helm twirled. "I am sure that now, his mind is changed, about prison being hell after hearing about the Hell that my version went through."

Elice turned toward Smith then watched him shrug.

"Is that enough for you as a therapy session to talk how about I feel about my loss, Doctor Smith?" Robot said as he leaned aside. "Because I need none of that. I am a heavily modified Rambler Crane Model that is experienced." He patted on his chassis. "Emotions cannot control me." His claws returned into his chassis. "I control them."

Smith's glare was pointed toward the machine.

"That is all of my questions, your honor." Elice said then sat down at the desk.

"Alright, Robot, thank you for coming." Jude thanked the straightened up machine. "Now, this was quite eventful compared to your prior experience, was it. . ."

Robot twirled toward Jude.

"This was quite dull in comparison to living in space, your honor." Robot replied.

The court room erupted in laughter except for Smith and Robot as Jude grinned. 

"Thank you, you're dismissed." Jude said. "This court will reconvene for closing argument tomorrow at nine thirty-three. Court is adjourned."

Robot departed the emptied booth then slid out of the chamber over the sounds of the small hammer then exited the court room. He took a different path that had been given to him by Bill with help from the security team prior to leaving for the testimony. He brushed on past the crowd of people with ease going down several levels using elevators at a time. Robot was several feet below when a hand landed on his chassis and a lifeform entered his space. Robot clasped on to the figure's uniform then flipped them over and aimed the cackling claw above the man's chin. 

"Robot."

Robot withdrew his claw as the voice registered in his memory banks.

"Major West." 

Robot wheeled back.

"You're right." Was the major's reply. 

"No, Doctor Smith was right." Robot corrected. 

"Well, you're both right." the major got up to his feet. "Can you just stand there and let me apologize?"

"I can." Robot said. 

The major stepped back with a sigh.

"I was stupid."

The major folded his arms with a sigh.

"I . . . I was just angry it happened on my watch."

Don leaned against the wall then rubbed the back of his neck.

"If I were in that position and we couldn't freeze him for the rest of the trip." he sighed, facing the machine, his hands planted alongside his waist. "I wasn't really thinking right." he tapped along the temple of his head with a smile. "I was thinking with my rage instead of my head."

It was quiet between them in the corridor.

"I forgive you." Robot said.

And the tension in the air between them evaporated.

"Did you run after me?" Robot asked.

The major laughed.

"No--ah---may--y---yes."

Robot was silent then clacked his claws together and handed him a cup.

"Drink some water, Major West."

"H-h-h-h-h--how---We're not that advanced!"

The major's hand was trembling as he held the glass.

"I am a emergency model designed for potential problems that may arise by Global Sedition. We are that advanced but it is very expensive."

Don shrugged then downed the cup and handed it back to the machine then the cup was gone.

"So, uneventful day, huh?" Don lifted a brow. 

"Given you are here, it is eventful for you." Robot said.

"It is. . . Did you mean it though?" Don lifted both of his brows briefly then lowered them. "That you are happy about sending a old friend to prison?"

"I am very happy that I have his back when he needs it." Robot said. "He did his best to make sure Will Robinson grew up and I did my best to protect the crew of the Jupiter 2. The mission was a massive success."

"You did a good job." Don said.

"Thank you."

"So, what is next for you?" Don asked.

"What is next. . ." Robot then threw his arms up in a u shaped formation. "I do not know. I have no plans. Only . . . For the first time in a very long time; I have done everything that is needed of me and what I have wanted and I don't know what to do with myself upon arriving to Mission Control."

"Aren't you afraid of vanishing?" Don joined the machine's side then paused with his hands linked behind his back. "Your timeline doesn't exist. Neither does Bill's past. That fall prevented your existence from happening _again_."

"I used to be afraid." Robot replied.

"Used to be?"

"I feared on the way that my tapes would inexplicably be erased and my frame would become nothingness. My atoms gone. My trusted friend gone, our suits gone, and the Jupiter 2 crash landed with the Robinsons waiting for the professor and the major to return. I expected to vanish before I could help. . my--my. . . my. . . my. . . my. . . _buddy_."

Robot's voice started to crack as he sniffled and sobbed. Don took out a handkerchief then handed it to the machine. Robot emulated the sound of sneezing with the object against his helm as the major watched liquid appearing on the view screen that protected the grill. 

"Being dragged away by Global Sedition's attempt to sabotage the launch a second time! A seeeeeeeeeeconnd time!" Robot waved the dark handkerchief. "The injustice, the ingenious harm, the audacity!"

"He can't be that stupid to work with them a second time." Don frowned at the idea.

"Sing the right tune to Doctor Smith and he will do as asked." Robot sniffled. "Now, he is gone." his helm twirled as the sniffling continued. "I can't get him back. I can't even tell him good-bye."

"But there is this--"

"THAT'S NOT EVEN THE ONE I GREW UP WITH!"

Robot roared so suddenly, cutting him off, the major stepped back as the machine resumed wailing.

"It hurts that I didn't even get to thank him for being my partner in arms and my pal." Robot continued. "For being there for thirty years. For making the right choice to amend for his miscalculated decision rectifying the past." He cleaned the fog off his helm then handed it back to the major who inspected it for liquid. "He was . . . quite a character with the scar."

Robot's helm lowered.

"I do not know the man above." 

Don nodded.

"Your point is very thorough." Don smiled, softly, but heartbroken.

"Good-bye, Major West." Robot turned away then resumed going on leaving him behind.

Don stood there watching the figure shrink before his eyes. 

"Good-bye . . . Robot." and he watched him vanish once taking a turn.


	11. A silver claw and lesson learned

Bill looked through the pockets of his uniform that had been removed when he had arrived to the past. His hand traveled through the pockets searching for a specific specimen as the suits behind him waited quite patiently for him to stop. He stepped back then checked for his gloves. His gloves didn't have it either as Bill lifted himself up and paled. He made a bolt for to the medical wing of the building as the suits walked after him taking their time quite annoyed. Bill came to a pause in the center of the medical wing.

"Doctors, nurses, where did the claw that I had on my person go?"

The doctor on staff turned in his direction and frowned.

"Uh, what claw?"

Bill sighed.

"The silver claw! It's a fingernail!"

"I didn't see it on your person when you were on the table."

Will paled even further.

"Is there a environmental analyst who checks through belongings after arrivals like mine?"

The newly assigned doctor and nurses exchanged a glance with the other.

"No, sir."

"Mr Robinson, what is the meaning of this rush?"

"Oh God. Oh fuck. How many agents does Global Sedition have here?" He turned toward the agents. "There is a very dangerous fingernail that is long, silver, and pointed."

"And what makes it so important?"

"It has the DNA of what Doctor Smith became and if it scratches someone then over time they will become what HE _was_!"

Bill rushed past the suits.

"Well, what kind of idiot would take a biohazard with them after all the pain it brought them?" the doctor from afar asked.

The suits shrugged then followed the older man. The suits rushed after him through the building observing the groups of people stepping aside looking in the direction that he had gone. The came to a pause in front of the entrance way to the general's office that lacked in general any doors at all. It was quite open and transparent in contrast to how USGF were being with the people. Bill was finishing explaining what had happened as the general listened quite unhappy about what problem had been made.

"Why did you bring it along?" the general asked, darkly.

"I brought it along as a reminder of what I came from. . ." Bill said. "Always had it on me because I never knew when the portal would open and take me back to my family."

"If Global Sedition has it. . ." he paled. "Looks like I will have to make a call to the prison that he is being held at." The general grimaced on the matter then it vanished off his features shifting his attention on to the younger man quite curious. "What does it look like?"

Bill drew quickly on the pad then held it out for the man.

"This."

The general grimaced.

"Sinister." the general shuddered. "He has all the reason to avoid that if they try to attack him."

"General, this is becoming ridiculous. At this point, it would be best if you made a prison ship and stranded him somewhere for the duration of his sentence."

"A cryoship. . ." The general looked up toward Bill then smiled. "Until Global Sedition is extinct then put him into prison."

"Forever? No. That is just too cruel. Why doesn't the ship find a planet in one of the solar systems and dump him there on a really rough planet."

"That is hell."

"But, he will have every opportunity of leaving it if he bothers to learn. Not hell. Purgatory. He will have a choice if he wants to spend half of his youth trying to get home or making himself a home."

The general smiled.

"I will have it put that way."

"However, I have to be there when the offer is made."

"Why?"

"I have to say good-bye."

"That man ate your family and you want to say good-bye to him? Bill, do you realize how messed up, disgusting, and appalling it is to say good-bye to a murderer?"

"I do. And I forgive him for that." Bill smiled if only briefly for a moment then it was replaced by a bitter smile. "But, I won't take being lied constantly by him."

The general paused as he faced the younger man.

"Kid, what he did to his vocal cords, he won't be lying constantly. . . but lying around constantly?" he lifted a eyebrow ridge then grinned, widely, in return. "Highly likely."

Bill and the general laughed as the suits regained their breath then the general proceeded to make the necessary call.

* * *

"I want to apologize to your daughter." Don said.

Those were quite a few words that Professor John Robinson hadn't anticipated after a week of the younger man's noted absence from his family's lives. He squinted at the younger man, the doubt that had landed in his mind of having chosen the right man to be a pilot and potential lover of his daughter, it was a heavy kind of weight.

Had he done some background research into the man's personal life instead of his file then she wouldn't have aversion to going out into space with him in the same ship. Only two days ago they had seen the other at the trial of Doctor Smith, dishonorably discharged, his rank withdrawn, awards taken away, and sent to live at a super max prison. Only two days ago he walked away with a sulk.

"What brought this up?" John asked.

The major winced.

"Robot hacked everything around me and treated me the way that I treated her."

His brows raised at once.

"For a entire week?"

The major nodded, grimly, wincing.

"A whole week."

"And?" The professor's brows raised further.

"I feel terrible." Came out sincerely.

"I will get her." John said. "Judy! Major West is here to apologize for his behavior!"

Slowly, but surely, Judy was by her father's side. John stepped back then she came between the doorway and the major with her arms folded. Her eyes were icy in the direction of the older man with a deadly glare. Her eyes were pools of resentment and distrust in him. After what his machines had relayed back to him for the last week day in and day out when he spoke to them for specific purposes, Don felt ashamed.

"I am sorry." Don linked his hands behind his back. "I just. . . never really thought. . . that women really hated the way I acted toward them."

Judy's brows knitted together, incredulously, with a look of disgust.

"The only thing I have is my good looks, my skill at being a pilot, and I have little skill in flirting with women. I just do that so everyone thinks I am---I am. . ."

"You're. . . what?"

"I just never really had girlfriends in most of my life."

"That doesn't excuse you for treating me like a sex object."

"I am gay." Don spat it out. "I just---don't REALLY like most women. Once they know me, the real me, it's a bit horrible."

Judy stared at him as he looked aside rubbing the back of his neck, his face a heated red, embarrassed. 

"You--what?"

"I am a gay." Don repeated out loud. "I like them. Okay?" he sighed, linking his hands behind his back, quite ashamed. "I just don't get women as people. If I had been born a woman, maybe yeah, I would get them but I don't."

"You don't have feelings for women?" Judy asked, incredulously.

"Well, a little." he meekly shrugged with a smile. "I just don't like them very much."

Judy snorted in bemusement.

"You are the worst case of a bisexual disaster that I have laid eyes on, Major West." Judy said. "If we were forced in the same ship for a couple of days. . ."

"Yeah, I _would_ be forced to get to know you against my better wishes." Don admitted.

"You mean women are your last to romance." Judy commented on the matter.

"Yes." Don nodded in agreement, wincing. 

It was silent between them as he hung his head.

"I am pan." Judy piped up. 

Don's head bobbed up in alarm.

"OH!" Don said. "You--you---you are attracted to people of all genders?"

"Uh huh." Judy nodded with a smile. 

"But, you don't hate men in general." Don said. 

"I don't." Judy said. 

Don laughed.

"I _am_ a disaster." Don said. "But, I'll try to be a better person around women in general. You included."

Judy smiled in return as she leaned against the door frame of the doorway.

"Would you like to get to know me as a person before the flight?"

"YES!" Don then grew embarrassed at his outburst and coughed into his fist. "I mean, yes."

"I have a pass for a simulator for Halo for tonight." Judy proceeded to propose a activity to the man who straightened up as he listened to her. "If we are going to be stuck on the same planet for the rest of our lives then we have to see how we work as a team."

"I am a loner." Don said.

"You can't be a lone wolf in space, Major West. You need help." Judy reminded him. "You have nothing to back you up in space. No UGSF. No additional weapons. No fleet of doctors to tend to you, no personnel overseeing you, generally, it's just you and a family." Don nodded along to her drawn out explanation of why it was a bad idea to continue his old ways with her family. "A doctor and a soldier; do you want to see how a doctor fares in combat?"

Don nodded back.

"I do." Then it was his turn to lift a brow. "What time?"

"Six forty-five." Judy replied. "I'll text you the directions to the simulator that I take."

"Here is my comn." Don handed her the transparent card and she scanned it. "That is where I will check my comn terminal."

Judy scanned it then looked up toward him with a nod.

"I will."

"See you later!" And Don made his way down the hall whistling then Judy closed the door and turned away giving her father a dirty glare.

And John was floored at the revelation.

"You should never have been for the ban against people like me serving openly. Dad, what was on your mind? Why? Why?"

Judy departed from the doorway with a disgruntled look and went to her bedroom as Maureen winced.

"Maureen, why didn't you tell me about that three years ago?"

Maureen turned toward her partner, apologetically.

"You were focused on the ship and didn't need any distractions. Said so yourself, rights for those who can't reproduce children don't matter at that stage."

"I screwed this up."

"You very well did."

"I can fix this."

"John--"

"I can withdraw my support to the militarization of the family program and the defense current views of family. That's a start. I will have this fixed before we go into space." John picked up a padd then went over toward couch. "I am going to fix this before I make dinner. I am a idiot, Maureen." he sat down into the couch with a frown then he was joined by Maureen. "I should NEVER had full control over it."

Maureen smiled back at him, amused.

"That's what I said and you said I was worrying too much." Maureen said.

John reached forward then squeezed her hand.

"You were right, darling." John assured. "I was being reckless, stupid, ignorant. Just like my dad."

"At least it only took one of us to remind you of that." Maureen told him with a chuckle.

"I don't know how I would have taken if it were Will and his sisters." John said as Maureen took out her padd and proceeded to read then John went on to make the essay. 


	12. Global Sedition's attack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is literally handing me out rough ideas of scenes in this story of what they want to happen in such a way that says, "oh, this is easy. It's so short! You'll knock this out of the park! It'll be easily 500 to 900 words!"

"We have done significant testing in your back and have discovered that you only have a sore wound."

Smith rolled his eyes. It had been roughly a hour since he had been put under and was on his chest half covered in medical black uniform for the operation that hadn't been thought of until then. He had wondered why they would bother to check on him then and now instead of later as they tended to for those in the most awful kinds of imprisonment to face the consequences of their actions.

The warden had him in his office back in prison dark blues with his hands clasped together in his lap. His hands were still rubbing along his wrist that lacked notably any signs of silver but bore the marks of prison cuffs that were firmly implanted in his skin. The very people that decided to throw him into prison without bothering to listen to him were the very same people giving him orders. The irony in this situation was more than telling as someone who had done all they had asked with their trust in him had became someone they couldn't trust and still gave orders.

It tasted bitter and foul in his mouth even on his tongue. But, the comment was more enough to tell him that his counterpart from the other timeline bore a scar that was part of the infection that changed him every day until there was no cure for it at all. He sucked down the bile lifting his attention up toward the warden until all that disgust was suckered down behind his lungs and around his intestines. It was a feeling that wrapped itself in dark crevices of his body but one that he could do.

"Mission Control like you to beware of a silver hook."

Smith folded his arms as he leaned forward. 

"A silver hook, well, they call it a claw."

Smith's brows knitted together, _a claw?_

"It's from your alternate self."

Smith lifted a brow.

"The man who sent you away came from the future. Rumors say that he destroyed a entire planet and killed your counterpart."

Smith leaned back then shrugged, cupping his hands together in his lap, nonchalant.

"Doctor Smith, if these people . . . If they got . . . If they get to you and no one can get to you first, make sure you don't get cut."

Smith made a airy hum then nodded. 

"You understand the dangers that come with being caught off guard."

Smith nodded, once more.

"If you make it for this week without being attacked by your employers then you will have to be there for one last conversation."

Smith tilted his head.

"It will have to be one sided. You have to listen."

Smith nodded along to what the prison warden had to say.

"Good. . ."

Smith smiled.

"Guards, take him back to his cell."

Smith was back up to his feet and little more than a few moments, his hands were returned to cuffs and chains that restricted certain movement that made his arms sore. The story that his lawyer told him about what had happened to lead him into the situation that he were in now was a story that he could have made sure end differently if only he had known his employers were going to stab him in the back and try to murder him multiple times. Once, being electrocuted. Two, being left aboard the Jupiter 2. Three, assassination in a public prison. And fourth, in a super max.

Smith shouldn't have to listen to his former employers who threw him into certain disaster and attempts on his life. What were his former employers trying to tell him? Die? That was unacceptable. He was going to enjoy every miserable minute in his personal hell that wasn't quite anything that had been relayed by Robot at the trial. He winced at the prospect of that reality. It was worse than being in prison. And he was a monster rat that was trapped wearing the skin of a sheep around the innocent lambs and couldn't be removed from the heavily fortified pin concealing it from the other sheep wearing a muzzle.

Military Prison required silence and as of far with little people wanting to talk with him instead of him; it was agonizing. He wanted to scream until his voice box couldn't make a sound and he couldn't speak ever again but retained his vocal cords to scream while his vocal cords remained in tact but capable of making noise. Smith was set into his cabin, uncuffed, unchained, and the door closed behind him as he wearily contemplated the rumored moves of Global Sedition that had been mentioned by the staff members of Mission Control at lunch break as he looked aside at the memories.

His back was sore, so was his throat, so was his patience with both employers; Global Sedition and Mission Control.

_I can live with being in prison but not when Global Sedition warrants to kill me._

Smith slipped out a shiv from the hiding place as the inkling of escaping his personal Hall started to form.

_Oh this shall work._

He knelt down then chipped away at the ground and flicked off a piece of the ground then sported a grin at seeing the fruit of his labor be revealed.

_I know it will! I know it will!_

It was a older military prison built during the war as a cheap prison interment for traitors and hadn't been intended as a means of permanent concealment. Smith tapered off the curtain then dropped it on the floor and continued what he had started. Smith chipped off layer after layer of the ground until he came to a pause looking up from the hole that was made with quick effort.

A monster could work with what was allotted to it and what was the weakest points of the environment. With his hole correctly made with appropriate size and length, he admired his creation a second time. He slipped the curtain on to the ground then set about decorative rocks and other collections that public prison had awarded to him. Smith went over to the bed then closed his eyes and waited for the attacker to arrive. The door to his cabin slipped open as he remained still feigning the sound of tired snores. He heard the sound of footsteps go around the improvised rug then a long pause.

Smith's eyes opened as he saw his attacker raise a long pointed claw in the air above him. He reached out grabbing the wrist right as she was about to deliver the crushing blow then kicked into the side of her neck staggering her back to the side waving her arms. Smith ducked as she charged forward then grasped her by the hair and smacked her head against the steel cold icy bed. She grunted jabbing her elbow forward into his stomach. Smith flipped over with a sudden fall landing to the ground.

The claw was raised then flung forward. Smith rolled out of the way then jumped to his feet. He delivered a sharp punch jumping to the side away from the hole that he had spent precious hours on and wasted away precious resting hours. She flung the item forward in a stabbing motion and he quickly dodged the blows careful to navigate her away from the hole to the other side of the hole. He delivered a sharp upper cut then traded blows with her and made sure she missed the mark.

Silence was his friend as he wounded his attacker with fist and foot and wall. Smith disarmed the younger woman with his boot on her wrist as she were on the ground. Then he flung her on to his cot and took a few steps away from her. She groaned as she lifted herself up with rage in her eyes. The younger woman charged after him. Smith stepped back, his hands linked behind his back, grinning. _Bon voyage._

Which is when he fell into the hole falling out of her vision as he waved back at her with a grin. Smith crashed into a body of water with a splash. He looked up spotting the entire building that held the prison complex above him. Smith grinned then saw a flick of light above him belonging to a humanoid figure so his grin faded replaced by a horrified expression then scowled. _Damn, they're determined!_ It almost made Smith admire the want-to-be-murderer.

_They must be paying her dearly._

He paled then made a mad dash for shelter.

_Freedom! Freedom! Freeeeeeeeedom!_

He made it in the hot water to the nearest shore then shook his figure and turned toward the body of water.

 _She isn't exactly giving up, dear Zachary._ Smith noted as he spotted her arms going up and down as her head vanished briefly under water with each stroke. 

Smith tore off his sleeve then began to make his escape.

 _Time to get lost._ Smith out ran the woman into the dark as she panted with one hand wearing protective gloves concealing the attack weapon. _And find some sanctuary._ Smith pressed his torn sleeve against his mouth as he made his run through the underground cavern. Whatever it used to be at one point, it couldn't have been natural, it could only have been man made. Smith traveled for what felt to be hours through the cavern using the rock as his guide forward. 

Smith came out of the tunnel and spotted where he was.

It was a very naturally swampy area that had to be one of the rarely sectioned off few places of Earth since the conclusion of the war.

_**Louisiana** _

Beneath the face mask, Smith grinned all the while navigating his way through the overgrown area leaving behind his escape route seeking for civilization. 


	13. News announcement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short and sweet chapter.

"Breaking news alert; Doctor Zachary Smith has escaped from prison--"

John was in a daze as his mind swirled and the room around him spun and he started to panic the following morning.

"John, are you alright?" Maureen asked as the family were silenced watching the news.

Color paled from the professor's skin.

"Mom, Doctor Smith has escaped!"

Maureen went into the living room then watched as the reporter relayed over the events of his trial as a picture of Smith leaning back listening, boredly, leaning a elbow against the arm of the chair with his fingers pressed along the side of his face. A animation was running of his escape with him represented by a blue figure that had lines running through it against a dark blue landscape that dug a tunnel and went down until it couldn't be seen much longer.

Maureen and John's hands reached out for the other then clasped and squeezed once they made contact with the other.

They were so afraid. 

For their children. 


	14. Investigating the escape

"So, what do the cameras show asides to Smith attacking thin air?"

The general was squinting at the large screen displaying the events over and over. It was the oddest turn of events that he had seen in his life. The war that had raged modern day America and fractured it for seven years to the point of the second civil war was the second oddest turn of events where everything that was wrong was right and everything that was right was wrong and twisted inside out to become a mere shadow of itself when the United Global Space Force was United States Space Force in its infancy.

"Nothing, sir."

The general shifted his attention toward the security screen analyst.

"Nothing?"

The general looked down in bewilderment then leaned his hands on the counter and scanned the screen once more searching for something that made sense. He thought logic and common sense had returned after the war but once the planet became apparent that was dying, all that had had fallen out of the window along with innocent, hope, optimism, and kindness.

"Nothing, sir."

"Odd." The general commented. "Not even a image fragment of what it had been before."

"Nor a data piece."

"He must have been really stressed out and depressed in prison. . ."

The general frowned at his own comment.

"His time in the room indicates that he slept well."

"This man has been through the millennial war." the general noted. "We were in darker straits back then." he stared at the holographic screen displaying the event of what had happened. "This isn't _that_ bad."

"Sir?" the officer looked toward the general.

"Someone was there." the general noted. "They must have been wearing all green."

"All green? Sounds like it were a inside job."

"No, people wearing green blend in with the natural background of the scenery." The general laughed. "Hardly insider knowledge."

"Really, sir?"

The general looked toward the officer with a smile.

"It's a basic 101 fact in the great color scheme of green."

The general started to laugh as a memory crossed his mind. He sat down into the nearest chair as his laughter became chuckles then leaned back cupping his hands together in his lap. He leaned back into the chair softly snickering. He rubbed the bridge of his nose then lowered his head and shook it in bemusement. It was a greatly uplifting memory.

"I can imagine how that could have gone in the press releases."

"I wore green on live television by complete accident and I was a talking head for a week after making the announcement of the Jupiter program."

"Sir?"

"The resistance used that in the war against the federal governments for numerous tasks sneaking in places like these to retrieve their own. Green wasn't very expensive back then and it was sold a very low price so they could make a lot of profits out of it."

"Were you part of the war?"

"I was one of the good guys." the general replied.

"Everyone had a different lens about what was going on during those seven years. The resistance was widely seen as the good guys four years _after_ the war had begun. Only after the resident in charge became a dictator, threw all the democrat lawmakers into prison, enforced destruction of democratic businesses, and did a lot of nasty things. Four years, the resistance was a laughing stock that was ridiculed for protesting and making a fuss of everything that he did."

The general leaned his hands off the counter.

"I have to go."

The general turned away then departed the security room.


	15. Robot's new shell

_Internal Operating System:_ check.

 _External Defense System_ : check.

 _Processors:_ check

 _Treads:_ check

 _Memory banks:_ stabilized

 _Internal Heat detectors:_ operational.

 _tunnel diode timer_ : operational.

* * *

"Good morning, Robot!"

Robot came to after being deactivated from the last time that he had been allotted to be awake by Mission Control. He detected that he were outside of the building being faced by the older Robinson that he knew well and thorough. His mind wave equipment indicated the younger man was in good spirits. That was a novelty that Robot still hadn't quite got used to despite being out of the environment that promoted doom, gloom, and the younger Robinson toiling his life away focusing on a machine to save his family.

It all didn't feel real to Robot despite his processors informing him that everything was different and he were in a better place. His sensors indicated that he were surrounded by more than just the young Robinson who had greeted him with a wave of his hand as the younger man grinned. It was still strange not to detect the familiar person that called itself a monster and had grown into one before his sensors.

"Good morning, Bill." Robot returned the reply.

"Mission Control needs your help." Bill said.

"What is the mission?" Robot's helm twirled.

Bill motioned toward the general who stepped forward.

"Doctor Smith escaped from prison one week ago from today." the general faced the machine quite somber and grim but his report was quickly given on the facts at hand. "Global Sedition is after him. We are after him and he is quite armed and dangerous to the general public around him."

Robot twirled toward Bill and detected that the younger man agreed with the assessment provided by the general so Robot's attention focused back on to the older man.

"The Robinsons are going to launch for Alpha Prime A in four weeks." The general droned on the report, holding four of his fingers up and wiggled them. "The professors are very afraid that Doctor Smith will get aboard and sabotage their robot then depart before the Jupiter 2 flees Earth for Alpha Prime A." he lowered his hand linking it behind his back. "They want Doctor Smith captured before they report to their cryostasis pods."

"You require my presence aboard the Jupiter 2." Robot said.

"Eh, negative." The general said.

"What do you require me to be?" Robot asked.

"We need you to go on a search for Doctor Smith and talk him back into returning to prison." The general said.

"Doctor Smith would never go through with that." Robot said.

"It is the only way to keep him safe." The general rationalized.

"Not." Bill coughed then hissed in his next comment. "They tried to kill him in prison the night that he escaped."

"Okay, we will put him into the prototype of a freezing tube after he is in the custody of the United Global Space Force." The comment was enough to warrant the smile of the older Robinson. "We will keep him there until we can move him to the ship for transport at a secret location on Earth that only I and Doctor Judy Robinson know."

"That's the right prison that is best suited for him." Bill grinned in response.

"Doctor Robinson is the inventor of the cryopods in making leaps ahead of where we were before." The general gloated with pride of the promising and intelligent doctor. "Now, we need to keep a less intelligent doctor in there at the test sites for the pods until this all blows over."

"General, is that ship I asked for being made quickly?" Bill asked.

"It will be done by the time that the Robinson have to go." the general assured with a arrogant smile. "Just a few more adjustments and you will be good to go."

"Great." Bill grinned.

And the general winced before he started.

"However---"

"What is it?" Bill immediately frowned.

"We're sending ten people along with you." he flashed his hand open twice to signal the number ten then lowered it down to his side. "Not colonists, explorers. They will set up the science station outside of your ship and be done within a couple months on construction." he twirled his hand in a circle. "They are botanists, zoologists, geologists, and what not. . . We picked these people to go there _before_ the creation of the Jupiter program."

"Are they a family?"

"No." The general replied.

"Then ten people will die if they don't get along as a team." his words fell stiff, mean, and sharp on the matter with such experience that made itself raw that he would be the only survivor a second time with Robot as his companion.

"That planet is expected to be green and recent probes have indicate the gravitational pull is just as Earth's." the general replied to the younger man. "We made sure that your planet from our great selection of planets in the habitable zone were the best place to be with all the recent data that the probes sent back. At least the ones that were further than just ten years away from Earth."

"Alien planets are unexpected and so are the alien guests." Bill explained to the general. "I like to meet them."

". . . Are you sure about that?" The general asked.

"I am sure." Bill said. "Are the additional five people just for defense parties? You really didn't plan for a machine being part of the crew, did you?"

"Yes and we didn't think we needed a rambler crane model for that because it was a mainly scientific expedition that could return after a five year stay there." The general replied quite reluctantly to the man who had his arm folded listening to him then he shifted toward the taller machine. "Still don't."

""Robot, what is the first place you like to search?" Bill asked.

"Washington D. C." Robot announced. "Doctor Smith may be employed as a background dancer, I will start there with concerts."

And Robot rolled away.

"I like to see the design of the ship, too." Bill said.

"This way." And Bill followed the general.


	16. See the people you will know in your future

Bill was brought to a basketball court featuring a small group of people that was diversified with layers of brown and about two white streaks moving from side to side along the court room. The court room was in a facility set about in Alaska underneath a solar dome that at was well hidden by props that resembled mountains and drones from above held the illusion of a mountain landscape behind the movie prop. Inside of the court room was squeaking shoes, grunts, and the smell of sweat that lingered in the air. 

"The two men who stand out as a sore thumb are the security officials."

Bill looked toward the general.

"Let me guess, the other three people are the security detail."

"Yes."

"And the last five people are the scientists."

"Yes."

"Who are they?"

"The scientists?"

"Yes, the scientists."

"Professor Joseph White of geology, Doctor Annabelle Jefferson of zoology, Doctor Mary Matthis of Botany, Doctor Janet of adult medicine, and Doctor Nick Steve of Pediatrician."

"What do you need with a doctor that deals with children?"

"We have to be prepared for the unexpected down there."

"The one thing that you're good at when nothing goes wrong."

"Yes."

"Do you have faith in this mission?"

"I had more faith in it than the Jupiter program because of Global Sedition's sabotage."

Bill glared in the direction of the general.

"Then why did you let it proceed to go on?"

"Most people had more hope than I did."

"Riiight."

The general turned in the direction of the lone Robinson survivor as he folded his arms.

"All those hours spent working on what was supposed to be the seed of humanity and throwing it all aside because it wasn't going to work?"

"You shouldn't work on something if you don't have a little faith it was going to work, General."

"Ow." The general rubbed his shoulder. "That hurt."

Bill rolled his eyes then sighed.

"If you made the Jupiter program classified then maybe Smith wouldn't have done what he did." the younger man sighed, lowering his head, then rubbed the bridge of his nose. "But I highly doubt it." his attention shifted on to the older man. "He would have gotten aboard the ship in any means possible."

The general frowned at that response.

"We couldn't allow moral in the Unite Global Space Program to fall like that from the announcement. Three years making a ship, trial and error, it took a toll on all of us not just your father and your sister." The general gestured toward himself with a wave of his finger then frowned, looking aside, ashamed of how the last few years had gone. The general sighed with such disappointment in his demeanor as he looked back. "It didn't take a few weeks to construct the Jupiter 2 like your ship. We are getting it done faster because of experience."

"And do they have a pilot?"

"They don't need one." 

Bill's eyebrows rose up.

"You . . . don't. . . need one?"

The general nodded with a grin.

"We cracked the code on a completely human artificial intelligence a few decades ago so we have been working on companions that could live with it for the last three years."

"What kind of companions?"

"Uh. You don't want to know."

"I do now."

"We. . er. . . "

"Did you create a entirely new animal just for the sake of giving the artificial intelligence a friend?"

"It kind of sort of went the wrong way."

"Just how the wrong way did it go?"

"We made a skeletal robotic horse, dog, cat, and a mouse out of pollyalloy."

"That's not quite the wrong way."

"They leave mayhem behind them."

"What a odd bunch of animals to be gathered together and glitch."

"We call them; Curly, Larry, Moe, and Shemp after the four stooges."

"You mean the three stooges."

"No, there was _four_ of them so it is the four stooges. Still running around getting money for their comical accidents by anyone nearby them."

"What---":

"It's a literal law, you have to pay them after they cause mayhem so they will never cross paths with you again. A thousand dollars per stooge if possible."

"Why---"

"It was President Kennedy's idea after they came to the white house when they were renovating it and kept coming back because they weren't exactly given the pink slip."

"General, those people died a long time ago."

"Dead? No. Real? Yes. Very immortal? We don't know how and we are too afraid to ask." The general smiled, briefly wincing, as the younger man's jaw fell partially then slid his hand up and gently closed his mouth. "The government does a very good job at scrubbing internet videos of their mayhem and editing it into some movie or fan video."

The younger man nodded in return to what the older man had to say.

"Now, telling everyone that we had those four running around as immortals and didn't put them into cryostasis after developing the technology for it, we would get a lot of angry people storming the white house amid riots and protests. Only then will we get the worst chaos the stooges could ever brew with their natures." 

Bill watched as the older man proceeded to smirk. It was strange to see someone smirk when talking about chaos, disaster, and nation wide protests. It was strange even after all those years becoming familiar to a monster that grew delighted in sowing chaos as part of a plan while rubbing his hands with a grin all too excited to play his role. Was it just so amusing to see four men single handed draw the ire of the population of Earth? Possibly.

"And the United Congress of Earth would have to suspend that earlier law." the general finished once the smirk was gone as he became somber facing Bill.

"Surely." Bill nodded.

"When would you like to meet them?" The general asked.

"The week before launch. I have to go." Bill turned away then walked away from the general heading toward a booth and the general's eyes remained tracked upon him. "I have a tennis match in one of the solar domes to attend back in Houston with a online friend who decided to come out of the woodwork."

"Daylight or night version?" The general asked, quite intrigued, shifting toward Bill. 

"It's glow in the dark version!" Bill shot back, walking backwards, with a grin and stretched his arms out. "I haven't played tennis since I was a kid!"

The general was facing the direction of the lone departing Robinson watching him go into a instant transportation unit, laughing quite amused, then observed the younger man vanish with a loud pop. Quietly, the general turned around then departed following him into the instant transportation unit and keyed in his transport coordinates. With a single press of a button, the general was gone with a quiet pop.


	17. Keep your center or else be unbalanced

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spider!Smith is at his hammiest here. Even more 1998 John Robinson bashing here.

Bill returned to his apartment at the end of the day after the tennis match then crashed into the center of the apartment and screamed.

His figure trembled in rage, in hurt, in silent fury as he hunched over laid on his knees as his hands rolled into fists.

The disgust and total rage filled his entire being in ways that it hadn't now knowing the truth as rumored by friends of his at school was true about artificial intelligence were capable of being people. That it was entirely possible to create a electronic brain and have them act on the minute to the course of the course. He shouted with rage and bitterness with swearing mixed in at his father's plan being so obvious in his eyes as a child, about the rumors scattered about on the internet that Earth wasn't going to survive in the next twenty years, that the government was sending only a select family to jump start civilization on a new planet.

Eventually, his voice became horse and there was nothing left to scream. His father was a idiot, through and through, someone that he found himself hating with his entire being. How was a colony class of a hundred people in one ship or a thousand just not possible? His figure was trembling. He had trusted his father, his role model, someone that he had once admired with his whole heart for being great at what he did. Now, he couldn't find the room to admire him, to love him, or care for him as he once had.

Unlike Smith's betrayal, this one hurt the most.

* * *

_"If you desire to keep your center, my dear boy, then it is best to weep for the loss in order to regain your balance."_

_The creature put a hand on Bill's shoulder._

_"Take your hand off me." The words came out strongly, but sharply.  
_

_The creature withdrew his hand._

_"As you request." Spider complied.  
_

_Bill shifted his attention toward the towering creature._

_"Are alien guests worth crying over?" Bill asked.  
_

_The spider shifted his attention aside, looking back, looking far and wide in to his memories._

_"They are." Spider replied, finally.  
_

_Bill looked toward the alien quite skeptical._

_"I haven't seen you cry, old monster."_

_The aging creature---that was inwardly withering in agony while standing -- looked toward the younger man.  
_

_"I grieve with my rage, William." He raised his hands up in fists then opened them up. "Rage is my method of emotional release."  
_

_"So that is why you are so extra terrifying." Bill noted. "Relentless and quick."  
_

_"I care about our fellow inmates more than I can care or want to care." Spider admitted, reluctantly, with a sigh. "They have hope, strength, and the star charts to their respective homes."_

_"While we have coordinates and a time stamp." Bill finished the older being's trail of thought.  
_

_"And a machine in progress that can bring us there but it is taking a little too long."_

_Bill's hands rolled into fists._

_"I want to make the machine and save our friend."_

_Spider's glare became harsh upon the younger man._

_"Is rescuing a perfect stranger who just entered your life worth trading over the only opportunity to rescue your family?"_

_"We keep losing people! I don't want to lose! It hurts! I am tired of losing friends to this stupid, insignificant, screwed up planet! I just want to keep ONE new friend! That can't be too much to ask!"_

_The creature hummed as he strolled from the younger man as the words sunk in._

_"You knew this guest for a month and got close to her. This is a wound that must heal with little intrusion."_

_"Yeah."_

_"You deserve time alone." the spider said so Bill raised his attention up watching the older man descend down the catwalk of the ship. "You will get it."_

_Bill was too stunned at first to say a word as he watched the old monster go to the closet for a few moments then came to the railing that divided the upper deck from the lower deck._

_"What?" Bill asked, startled. "You're **leaving**?"_

_"Yes." Came the soft reply that was almost hard but easy to hear as a whisper._

_"For how long?" Bill asked._

_The spider departed out of the closet then lifted his head up toward the younger man._

_"Forever long it takes for you to decide if you are to go with your noble cause or for the cause of heartbreak." Spider shrugged.  
_

_Bill looked down incredulously toward the creature._

_"Your cabin will be waiting in the lower decks as always, old monster." Bill said._

_Spider grimaced then the reluctant features fell away._

_"It won't be filled for as long as your machine is being used for a petty cause."_

_"Love isn't petty."_

_"Not when it is for someone you have only known for a month."_

_"Why can you pull yourself to do this, Doctor Smith?"_

_"I can't be associated to a foolish decision like that to devote all your resources, all of which would destroy this planet, to rescue a guest and remain stranded on this forgotten example of a prison planet."_

_"It's better than just us fighting to rescue them! You can come with me! I can make the machine to only make time bubbles and set it for self destruction after a certain period of time. I don't have to do this alone---"  
_

_"You will."_

_"Suit yourself perishing here."_

_"I won't die here, William, while you go around galavanting in Time! I will be somewhere FAR away from this FAILED expedition!"  
_

_"It isn't a failure here until I say it is! Two Wills are better than one!"_

_Spider rubbed the bridge of his nose._

_"Think about it, two William Robinsons." He held up two of his long fingers. "One version of myself to look at aiding your counterpart in his endeavor to save his family."_

_"That's not half bad, Doctor Smith." Bill shrugged._

_"Not half bad! NOOOT HAAAALF BAAAAAAD? NOOOOOOT HAAAAAAAAAAAAAALF BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! NOOOOOOOOOOOT HAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLFFFFF BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!_ _"_

_The spider paced back and forth repeating these words._

_"NOOTT HAAAAALF BAAAAD! NOOOT HAAAALF BAAAAAAAAD!"_

_Bill watched him pacing._

_"NOT HALF BAD ! NOT HALF BAD! NOT! HALF! BAD!"_

_Bill watched him brewing in rage._

_"NOTT HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLF BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!"_

_Bill came down the steps as the man was going in circles._

_"You don't KNOW WHAT half BAD IS!"_

_"I do, too!"_

_"NOT!"_

_"Do too!"_

_"You have nothing to compare THIS back on Earth to!"_

_"Do you?"_

_"Yes, the wars on Earth. That situation you laid out is WORSE to your heart! Both of your hearts!"_

_"Are you talking about me being unable to share a woman with myself?"_

_"No. I am talking about a situation in which you see a old friend but he won't accept you as a friend. He will accept his William as a friend but not you."  
_

_"We would look alike," Bill reminded. "It would be hard for you to do that for long."_

_Spider sighed, lowering his head, shifting away from the younger man._

_"Just be sure that you want to leave your mechanical friend behind."_

_Spider walked on toward the exit of the ship._

_"I am sure that. . . seeing the other version of yourself still in certain agony isn't any better than what we have now and you can't change it for him. I get it why you don't want to help me with the change of venue and I don't hold any harsh reservations against you for your decision."  
_

_Spider paused in his tracks._

_"This is why you need time."_

_"I had all the time in the world to think about this!"_

_Spider shifted toward Bill with his dulled blue eyes flashed open then his eye lids fell down as his lips went down with a hiss morphing to a snarl and his eyebrow-less ridges started to twitch._

_"She died only **YESTERDAY**!" Spider roared.  
_

_His voice boomed from deck to deck as Bill gripped the railing of the cat walk._

_"If you don't decide against this course of action in the next two months then I will take the first ride available and not look back. I won't see you, that bubble headed booby----" he twirled his finger at the machine that came to a pause beside him as his helm twirled. "---Nor will I ever lay eyes on this horrible planet ever again."_

_Then the creature departed as Bill watched him go from the fifth step of the staircase with a long stare and watched his dark figure blend in with the night then the door behind him close. He lowered his gaze then shifted toward the dark interior of the bridge facing the work in progress that needed even more modifications for what he wanted to do.  
_

* * *

Then Bill wept in ways that he hadn't since the weeping at the cellar of the court house.

His entire being lost all those negative feelings that came out as one agonized scream then he fell.

How had his father been thinking that he were saving his family by making them the saviors of Earth? What was the love in that? That was the actions of a God instead of a man trying to save his family and made sure that the next day was better than the one that they had before. What kind of father would do that? That wasn't a father; that was a man pretending to be God and it wasn't in any shape or form that was good.

"I am regaining my balance, old monster." 

The words were directed to thin air but more comforting to say it out loud to say it to someone lone gone but not quite forgotten.

"I won't let my center become clouded by my feelings."

Long as he spoke of his word of endearments for him, the old monster wasn't completely gone.

"I promise you on that. I promise." he used the living room table as his support up to his feet as he looked up then began to smile. "I won't let all you did to keep me with a clear head all be for nothing."

Bill went up the stairs, slowly, with a slow trudge.


	18. Fear of the Robinsons

Penny got up from her bed with a yawn and stretched her arms out. She looked on toward the plastic material that divided their halves of the room that had once acted as a wall and a buffer between them with one side of the room being covered in machinery and gadgets while the other half was devoted to a dark moody theme known with gothic holo-projectors that had been returned where they had been removed only a short time ago.

Penny picked out her clothing from the closet that consisted of dark clothing featuring orange and yellow that had dulled and darkened over time over repeated washing with darker tinted clothes. It had once been bright and vibrant, Penny recalled, as she stared at the clothing that laid in neatly folded piles in her drawer. She jumped back with a shriek at a unexpected toy robot that popped up in front of her.

"Will!" Penny shrieked.

Penny picked up the toy then marched her way to the other side of the room.

"That isn't funny putting that there--"

Penny flung the curtain open spotting the lump of his figure.

"That act isn't going to fly by your younger sister, space dork." Penny complained.

Penny approached the bed then flung the blanket aside then she stared at the bed and lifted a brow then went down the stairs to the shared bedroom and joined the family in the dining room. The family shifted in the direction of Penny, all except for the notably lack of Will, sporting smiles with lethargy clinging on to their eyes and figures. They were all in their wrinkled and quite dark pajamas with the parents wearing dark night robes that were tied with a long fabric on their laps.

"Good morning, Penny." Maureen said.

"Good morning, mom, dad, Judy." Penny said.

"So I take it that Will stayed up playing video games, again." John said as his brows lifted up. "Does he do that all the time?"

"Not since you introduced that to him after the aborted launch." Penny said.

"He spent most of his time researching how machines worked and putting them back together." Maureen said, fondly.

"He deserves all that rest." Judy chimed in. 

"Will isn't sleeping." Penny cleared her throat, loudly, and visibly.

"He is hanging out in his bedroom." John observed what she seemed to be implying.

"No." Penny repeated.

"Oh god no." Maureen dropped her silverware then her head crashed into her hands. "He is already taking apart a new machine and making it into something else."

"He is ten, Maureen." John reassured his partner. "And he hasn't been playing around with taking apart machines since Bill came into the picture." He took out a small item then pressed on it and a holographic projected comic book appeared in one hand. John flipped through the pages as it moved to his hand motion. "He has been reading holo-novels. According to his holo-novel account history, he had just reread this last night."

"He is eleven." Judy corrected. "Turned eleven months ago."

"And Will isn't in his room." Penny said.

John got up from the table then made a bolt up the stairs and Maureen followed him on up the stairs with a rush. Judy followed her parents up the stairs and there was horrifying long moment of silence that made Penny feel uncomfortable. John and Maureen bolted down the stairs then John went to the nearest instant transport booth and typed in a command with a rush.

"It says he went to the Tennis Court in Houston!"

"Why would he do that?"

"It doesn't make sense. Who was he playing with?"

"I can think of one person." Penny spoke up.

"Who?" Maureen asked as the group shifted toward Penny.

"Himself." Penny said. "Will really wants-- _wanted_ to be friends with his older self, being a hero and all, smart, successful, and all alone."

He stared at the screen on the instant transport booth then pressed another button and went inside of the machine.

"Bring him back, John." Maureen said.

John faced Maureen carrying a weight of worry in his eyes that were also in her eyes. 

"I will." John said. "He may have fallen asleep on a bench after all that running."

"It _was_ late when he went out." Judy agreed with a nod.

The assurance was enough to ease some members of the family and bring out a smile. In a moment, he popped out into thin air. The Robinsons waited for John's return pacing back and forth, jumping at the slightest sound of the machines making noise from their task or the television set coming on as scheduled, Maureen kept her gaze focused on the instant transportation booth. John returned a hour later without Will.

In a little less than a hour following his return, Bill knew and Doctor Smith was the lead suspect. 


	19. Together, we work, together, we figure

"Where is Global Sedition headquartered?" the first military officer smacked her hands on to the table.

Bill was seated in a chair remaining calm.

"I don't know." Bill shrugged.

The first military officer glared back at Bill.

"You lived with Doctor Smith--"

"Spider Smith." Bill coughed.

"He was still there," the second military officer asked. "was he not?"

"He really wasn't a doctor most of the time." Bill grimaced as he looked back at the man. "He was a warrior."

"What do you know him as?" The second military officer asked.

"I know him as a strange, flawed, but hammy monster that gave me space when I needed it."

Bill smiled back at the memories that crossed his mind.

"Why do you defer to someone who isn't here?" the first military officer asked.

"I am not deferring to him." Bill replied. "I defer to how you refer to the person I knew. Doctor Smith and my old monster are two different people."

The second military officer groaned from the corner of the room.

"Course he was a different person." The second military officer said. "He had to be someone else to survive with a child."

"How was he a different person?" The first military officer asked.

"Agony every moment of his existence." Bill's head was downcasted as he leaned forward and clasped his hands together on the table. "I made the best of it and so did he. I made a needle bed at one point to help him."

"Did he use it?" the second military officer asked.

"During the worst years of his transformation." he looked aside even more fonder and warmly but sorrowfully all at the same time. "I made it as a birthday present for him. I hadn't seen him smile that way and it wasn't the last after that."

"He was so proud of me, applauded me for my thinking, I don't think I will ever forget the hug that he gave me and the apology after that which he gave for getting aboard the ship. But, in all, he was grateful for the gift and he gave me a gift a few days later."

"What was it?"

"The best of them all."

"What was it?"

Bill smiled, fondly.

"His heart."

The officer frowned.

"He gave me his communicator with Global Sedition."

"Do you still have it?"

"Doesn't work. I threw it away." He leaned back into the chair. "Are we done?"

"Tell us the names of the people who worked for Global Sedition."

Bill smiled.

* * *

Robot was on rush mode as he sped through the streets of America on new found wheels that proved to be better transport in a space that wasn't quite wide enough for the form that he were more familiar to. He detected approximately five hours ago that he were on the trail of the man that referred to him as a traveling magician instead of a broad way actor --that, too, surprised Robot as was the kidnapping of the young Will Robinson -- fleeing away from him. Robot had used a air-car to chase down the younger man.

Robot wheeled into the dark part of the city that was pitch black and coated in remains of what had once been a civil war that had clouded the nation into darkness for two years as a gloomy fog. Robot's audio detectors picked up the sound of metal being disturbed and a door slamming. The sounds coming from ahead of Robot indicated that he were desperate and terrified of being cornered by the machine. His footsteps were loud but quick to a point.

The machine destroyed the door without much problem then wheeled on quickly down the stairs as his processors indicated the best way to neutralize the older man and return him to mission control. He hadn't processed that the older man would go after the boy, not even the unexpected "What in the ever loving black hole brought Doctor Smith to sabotaging the Jupiter program again after all that I did to avert all _that_?" by Bill when it came to the reporting of Will's disappearance. Doctor Smith was a man who stirred surprises not excluding chaos.

Robot came to a pause as his processor was overwhelmed with the apparent detection of the man surrounding him.

"Show yourself, HEATHEN!" Robot roared.

It was a roar made of the pent up rage for the man, for sending them astray, for leading the family to their doom.

His processor caught a unanimous thought: _Then lower your weapon and I shall appear._

"I come heavily armed!"

Loud familiar laughter echoed.

_Then where is your back up?_

"They're not here." Robot admitted. "Turn yourself in and reveal the whereabouts of Will Robinson."

Smith appeared from above folding his arms looking down in contempt toward the machine with disdain.

_I didn't take him._

"You are the only one aware of their living space, their instant transportation booth, and that they were secured!"

Smith sighed, annoyed, then applied his fingers to his vocal cords as he leaned forward scowling upon the machine with one hand on the bar.

"IIIIIIIIIIIIII DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN'T TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE _HIM_!"

It came out as a impressive roar that echoed for some time then Smith lowered his hand as Robot's helm lowered.

"If you did not, then who did?"

Smith shrugged.

"You must turn yourself in."

Smith smacked his lips with a grunt then turned away.

"If you are serious about your innocence then you must do this."

Smith was about five steps away when he turned on the heel of his feet and turned toward Robot glaring back at him.

"I had forgotten about that. You are a convicted criminal. They wouldn't listen to you."

Smith nodded.

"Is that why you had the operation on your throat?"

Again, Smith nodded.

"You must come forward---"

_Why would I take him under the orders of Global Sedition after they betrayed me, bubble headed booby?_

"I have no answer for that, Doctor Smith."

_Why come forward when I could be possibly be beaten up this time to the death in a jail cell with other convicts?_

"I do not know."

_It's not worth the isolation, the misery, the pain._

"Being not suspected of kidnapping is worth the suffering."

Smith paced back and forth with a brisk walk quietly moving his lips but no words were coming from them as a force of habit crept upon him. He looked aside searching for a solution to his problem quite irked by the issue that was nagging into his side.

_Why would I want to go back to people who will never listen to me? It's not worth losing my life over._

"You have no idea where he is." Robot noted.

Smith turned sharply toward Robot, exasperated.

"Perhaps, your employers know." Robot said.

_Maybe, but, I am not willing to go back there._

"If I can ensure that you are given a free ticket to the Martian colony Alpha Three, would you be interested?"

Smith's head bobbed up.

 _Starting over? I am interested._

"Turn off your holoprojectors and neural net." Robot said. 

Smith pressed a button then vanished and reappeared from alongside Robot.

"I am listening." Smith said within a breath.

Robot whirred toward Smith.

"Breaking and entering." Robot said. "Upon Will Robinson's safe return, I will enlist in your safe transfer off planet."

And Smith grinned.

* * *

The general stared at the list of names that had been provided by the younger man. The names were of highly regarded businesses including the one that had funded for their mission. The information stunned him. It was quiet in the office as he got up from the chair and stared out the window in a state of soundless shock. He linked his hands behind his back looking on. To be betrayed by the ones funding the program was the most unexpected twist of all was a thought that hung on his mind as he lowered his head.

They realized their problem and sought to force the United Global Space Force to out the fact.

The general sighed rolling his shoulders quite disgruntled observing the sea of smog that lingered in the distance.

It was damming information and they had blackmail over the program deep from the roots to the environmental disaster.

It threatened to create a severe great depression that the world would never recover from in time to escape for a new home world. 

So, the general had to sweep the information under the rug and that was that. 


	20. A impromptu rescue

Will didn't know how long it had been since he were snatched in the middle of transport, injected with a needle, and lost consciousness. His stomach was growling so it had to have been more than ten hours. Will felt that his hands were bound and his mouth was duct taped. Panic swept over him as he were held in somewhere dark, gloomy, and small that restricted his movement. Will struggled in his binds then discovered in his panic that his ankles were tied and his head was set on the floor on the side.

 _Am I in a luggage?_ Will thought at first with his heart racing. _Closet? Box? Where am I?_

"What are we going to do with the kid?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I didn't anticipate Global Sedition to not reply!"

"It's been a full twenty-four hours! We should have our money by now and start getting rid of the boy!"

"This is most annoying than you think it is!"

"Think it is? The one more annoyed about this is currently on the run being suspected of kidnapping."

"It's actually pretty funny."

There were feet shuffling, grunts, and objects being thrown. He heard a body smack against the wall then a loud thud as his heart was racing. Suddenly, light poured in and Will's eyes were blinded if only briefly then he was dragged out of the hiding place and fell to the ground. Will lifted his head up spotting the man taking a knife out then kneel down to his side. His eyes became so well adjusted that he recognized the face as that of belonging to the man on the run.

Smith slid out a small medical device then scanned the boy's legs that glowed light blue emitting from beneath the device. Will's voice was muffled as he announced, "Doctor Smith!" then the older man ripped the duct tape off the boy's mouth and tossed it aside. Smith proceeded to

"Did my dad send you?" Will asked.

Smith lifted his head up, scowled, then shook his head.

"Mission Control?" Will guessed.

Again, Smith shook his head.

"You're doing this on your own free will?" Will asked.

Smith smiled back at him if only briefly then nodded, somberly, rushing to his side then beckoned him on.

"Did you kill everyone?" Will asked.

Smith held his hand sideways then shook it with a shrug.

"Sort of!" Will exclaimed.

Smith snorted then took the boy by the hand and made a run for it. Will started to wonder, _why isn't he talking to me?_ They fled up the stairs to the building then into another room that had a instant transportation booth. Smith keyed in a command then beckoned the boy on as there was a rush of footsteps headed their way. He pressed a button then nothing happened. A loud noise came across that consisted of boots running toward them.

Smith leaped into the machine and typed in a code with one hand grasping on the boy's shoulder. The machine gently powered up then glowed by the interior as armed men dressed in black, boots, with little armor or technology coating them, made their way after him. Smith turned the boy away then Will squeezed his eyes shut preparing for something terrible. Suddenly, Will was staggering out of the booth crashing to the floor. He shook his figure leaping up to his feet then walked over finding Smith clenching his shoulder as he stepped forward with a audible hiss.

Smith collapsed into the chair then typed into a small datapadd on the table and slumped falling over.

"Doctor Smith, are you okay?"

Will came to the older man's side then froze spotting a gray bolt embedded on his right shoulder. 

It was shiny and alien -- it was quite literally a long thin rod into his chest -- that Will had only heard of in historical docu-series and seen in for that matter. 

Across from him appeared a tall but humanoid and innocent looking machine.

"Will, please step aside."

Robot slid forward as Will did as he was asked looking up toward the shiny machine. 

"Is he going to be okay?" Will asked, concerned.

"He will be fine." Robot said. "He needs a operation."

"He needs a surgeon!" Will said. "And a sanitized area to rest in."

Robot's helm twirled as he turned toward the boy. 

"We must _not_ take him to the hospital." Robot said. "I have only gained his trust recently. Taking him there will end any form of trust that I have established and may also bring resentment, distrust, and issues that I do not feel would be best to have if we are to reunite--which my internal processors have indicated have a high likelihood of happening given that I hadn't expected to work with him in your rescue."

Robot wheeled around the table as his helm twirled.

"I should have anticipated this, but that was the _other_ \--" Will's eyes remained trained on the machine. "---Doctor Smith and I believed he wouldn't get into trouble on Earth. I was wrong."

Robot sighed.

"His counterpart was in space actively mutating trying to get home and people weren't interested in helping a mutated man get off planet." 

His tone turned fond but bitter and sad at a time that had once been part of his life.

"I did not anticipate Doctor Smith and I sharing the same space working on a common goal after accomplishing our shared mission." Robot explained. Robot mechanically cackled as his figure shook with humor in his voice at what had happened instead then the laughter so then his voice fell low. "Nor did I anticipate having to treat his wounds again." 

Will frowned as he listened to the machine's rambling.

"Why not get him licensed medical help?" Will asked.

"Doctor Smith is a wanted man, Will. " Robot's helm bobbed up as he turned toward Will. "He is assumed to be your kidnapper." Robot reminded as Will looked toward the snoring older man with a grimace. "We need to wait for the media circus to die down so we can return you."

"How long will that take?" Will asked, concerned. 

"A news cycle or two." Robot clacked his claws together then handed Will a Nintendo Switch. "This has a new Pokemon game. Have fun."

"Oh, what is this one?"

"The Nintendo Switch remake of Pokemon Pearl."

"OH! I'M ON IT! I have been DYING to play this game!" Will went to the corner of the room, sat down, then jump started the game.

Robot came to Smith's side then summoned him on to the table. He generated the medical equipment, slipped off the man's dark clothing, then proceeded to operate with precision and care digging the piece out of the man's back. He removed the weapon then discarded it to the side set on the table and used the dermal generator to repair the wounds changing the settings here and there that he could repair leaving behind some damaged nerves tat had to heal on their own. Once certain, Robot set the weapon into the trash can then twirled toward Will.

He went to the food synthesizer and ordered a meal. He came to the table that the younger boy was seated at then put the tray on the table.

"Will, it is imperative that you eat." Robot said. "It has been a complete twenty-four hours since your disappearance."

"If it's not a cheese burger than I am not eating." Will said.

"Then you do not want the medium sized cookie dough with a cheeseburger and fries?" Robot asked.

Will's eyes flashed open then set the Nintendo Switch aside and picked up the spoon as Robot went over toward the man then slipped him into his arms. Smith's figure was dropped onto the furthest long couch then a heavy blanket was thrown over him. Once Robot were certain that everything was fine, he discarded the old uniform that Smith had worn throwing it, too, into the garbage. 


	21. To discuss a voice

After Will completed Pokemon Pearl in close to two days with meal breaks and bathroom breaks, he was bored. He searched the closet for something to observe and learn about while Robot had returned to Mission Control reporting false information about his search for the older man. It was a plan that Robot had shared with the duo before he left, just during Smith's recommended rest, that sounded so criminal and worthy of cackles being thrown at it. 

His hands grasped the wooden edges of the chess board then he slipped it out of the box setting it against his side then started to turn around but halted in his tracks spotting and jumped a complete two inches spotting the older man leaned against doorway with his arms folded looking upon him curiously.

"Doctor Smith, you should really get your vocal cords fixed." Will said. "Off this planet or on."

Smith sighed, shaking his head, with a condescending smile upon him that was soft but full of certain sorrow and pity.

"Do you do this often on unsuspecting people with your vocal cords?" Will noted to himself of the older man's reaction.

Smith grinned.

"You're a snake, aren't you?"

Smith snickered with a nod with a wave of amusement lighting his eyes. 

"But one who makes a sound when your unsuspecting victim is unaware of your presence."

Again, Smith nodded.

"Doctor Smith, would you like to play chess?"

Smith leaned off the door frame then leaned his arm against the door frame and put a hand on his chest appearing to be flattered.

"Yes, you."

Smith was quite humbled but a bit startled in a fit of shock about the circumstance.

"I take it that most kids don't want to play chess with you?"

Smith nodded.

"Come on, Doctor Smith."

Will went to the table leaving the closet and Smith quietly closed the door behind him with his eyes on the small boy. Smith seated back down into a chair as he were performing muscle therapy for his arm moving it up and down repeatedly. Will set up both sides of the chess board then returned with two cups of snacks that could do well for them and quite unhealthy but recommended for treats. Smith rightened his jaw then set the first move. Will waited patiently as he thought over his first move.

Finally, Will decided to make his move. The first piece was moved forward and Smith remained silent as he rubbed his chin as he loomed over the board, his lips puckered, frowning as he searched for a solution. They did this for several hours at a time long before dinner in the long but tiring game. Will folded his arms, his eyes getting heavy, slouching in the chair. Smith snickered then made his move with a grin. Will bolted awake then made his next move as Smith gasped.

Will captured Smith's knight.

"If you're going to be a Doctor then you need to speak with your patients."

Smith was carefully eating the spongy but quite soft food.

"Haven't you thought of that?"

Smith lifted his gaze up then looked aside.

"You haven't."

Smith nodded.

"Why don't you get Robot to fix that?"

Smith looked uneasy toward the machine.

"Oh, you're scared they're going to follow Robot back."

Smith had a small but pained nod closing his eyes and squeezing them.

"I am scared of not being listened to, Doctor Smith."

Smith lifted his attention up, bewildered.

"My dad and I have patched our relationship but I am scared, that once we arrive, things will revert to the way that they were before. That I am going to lose him, _anyway_. When he does start finally paying attention to me, I wouldn't want him to be part of my life." Will sighed, his fingers laced around the recyclable cup. "It's really horrible."

Smith nodded in agreement.

"I don't want that to happen again. I don't want to be forced to take drastic action just to be seen and acknowledged. I don't want to do that, again. But, a part of me feels doing that would be pretty useless just to make him tell me that I am important to him." Will's words were coming out slowly with precision and care as he pitied the future that would be so different but entirely the same. Will lowered his head with a pout and a sad sigh at what data that was available to him. "Because at the end of the day, it will just be five minutes then going back to his work colonizing Alpha Prime A."

Smith moved his chess piece as Will talked.

"I got it!" Will moved a piece then captured his queen and held it up with a smile. "Check and mate!"

Smith grinned, fondly, but endearingly upon the boy.

"Can we do another round? Please?" Will plead as the radiant grin began to fade from Smith. "Pretty please?"

Smith's attention returned to the television as he frowned regarding the matter observing Will's photo then sighed.

"Yes!" Will threw his hands into the air.

Smith cast a glare back at the boy.

"I never had this much fun challenging another chess player."

Smith's brows rose as his eyelids retreated showing his eyes.

"I mean, people like us are surrounded by idiots, am I right?"

Smith smacked his palm on the table with a growl then shook his with a heated look of disapproval nearly startling the boy. _WE'RE NOTHING ALIKE._

"I am just as smart as you are." Will protested.

Smith glared.

"I am intellectual." Will reminded.

Smith glared, again.

"You don't want me to turn out like you did." Will observed. "Like my counterpart did. You're scared I am going to become you, aren't you?"

Smith lowered his gaze leaning back with a sigh then lowered his head, cupping his left arm in his right hand, his left hand rubbing his forehead.

"He didn't listen to you." Will said.

Smith lowered his hand with a nod, his eyes closed, quite in emotional pain.

"Would you have listened to yourself?" Will asked.

Smith opened his eyes then nodded.

"Do you really think so?" Will asked.

Smith glared back at the boy. _Of course, I would!_

"Okay." Will said.

Smith reset the chess board.

"I would have listened." Will said.

Smith paused as he were setting up his side then leaned back lifting a brow.

"Yes, I would _have._ " Will insisted as he pointed back toward himself. "That version of me grew up with you. You probably lied to him constantly and doesn't trust you." Smith looked back in regret at how things had turned out, the doors closing between them, the way that their first meeting had gone. "But, you're not lying right now. I can tell that."

Smith rolled his eyes.

"Because you haven't gotten the opportunity to lie, why yeah, I get that." Will leaned forward, his elbows on the table, shaking his hands. "I give people _chances_ to explain while he can't because of experience."

Smith came to the boy's side then directed his elbows off the table then returned to the seat as the boy frowned. _Elbows off the table, William._ His lips moved with words that weren't being said, his breath not being used, a habit that hadn't gone away quite yet. Will squinted at the man's moving mouth in a attempt to garner what he were speaking. _You're a gentleman not a barbarian!_ The boy sulked when unable to determine what had been said.

"Oh really, I just talked myself into a corner," Smith was smiling, cupping the side of his face, with a low laugh. "I don't have experience but I can trust my gut feeling to listen."

Smith narrowed his eyes, his hand slipped off the side of his face then lowered into his lap.

"I like you to be able to talk when we go our separate ways. Besides, this media circus won't be over for another few days."

Smith leaned back, thinking it over, then nodded.

"Great!" Will announced. "Maybe things will be better. Hopefully."

Smith smiled, a little, at the boy's hopeful comment. _Hopefully._


	22. Journey end

When Smith was recovering from the injection of the vital nanobots into his throat, he played games of chess and ate food that wasn't quite solid. One day, at the end of the week, Will noticed his case wasn't being discussed on the news at all.

"Doctor Smith, I think the security protocols for the house are gone!"

Smith sighed then gestured on toward Will.

"Affirmative." Robot confirmed as Smith went to the closet then slid it open. "However, there is a new report that indicates they are heading to the launch pad."

"TO THE LAUNCH PAD?" Will almost shrieked, confused.

Smith slipped on a dark jacket that had long sleeves and a dark purple ascot that blocked view of the scar over his neck. Smith turned in the direction of the boy who rushed to get his shoes on and tied them up with speed. Smith turned the lights off then waved the machined off who refused to leave.

"Negative, I am to ensure that Will Robinson gets to Mission Control in Houston safely in one piece."

Smith sighed, exasperated, then turned the lights off to the apartment with Will on his heels leaving behind a unfinished chess game. Smith made a bolt for the car garage then took out a device from his pocket and frowned as he set in a command. A loud ding came from in front of the duo as he smiled. The side door slid open lifting up into the air revealing the contents as that of being four seats. Will leaped into the passenger seat then Smith waved his foot below the lower half of the vehicle.

A platform appeared beneath the vehicle then Robot went into the back. Smith waved his foot underneath then smacked his foot on the base of the vehicle and leaped up holding his boot making noise that were suspiciously close to something audible but sounded hoarse, rough, and sore but were slight distorted. Smith marched to the other side of the vehicle and leaped into the driver side. He frowned then set in the command for the vehicle. A steering wheel came out of the front half of the vehicle.

The air-car flew out of the multi parking complex with Will pinned against the seating with a surprised shriek. Smith grinned as he sped through the smog filled air ducking and dodging air-cars at will. He twirled the vehicle once the automatic seat belt buckling system came in with a manic laugh. Will clung to the handle alongside him as he cheered. Sirens came behind them. Smith looked toward the side mirror staring out toward the area behind him then grimaced as his grin vanished.

"THIS. IS. AWESOME!" Will announced.

"This is unsettling, Doctor Smith!" Robot cried. "Stop spinning the car! My delicate solar power generator cannot take this spinning!"

Smith swept the car side then glided up and stared on toward the building ahead of them.

"Doctor Smith, what are you going to do?" Will asked.

Smith was grinning with deviousness that almost appeared that he had lost it.

"He is intending to drive all the way to Mission Control through this great wall of buildings."

"Great Wall of Buildings?" Will asked. "What does that mean?"

"The Great Wall of China except it is made of buildings." Robot elaborated.

"That's a BAD idea!" Will exclaimed. "We're going to go through actual walls! Not all of the buildings have see through glass, Doctor Smith!"

Smith revved the air car forward then went on. Robot clung his hooks onto the handles installed on either side of the vehicle as Smith followed the directions that were being relayed by the GPS system during the flight. The car tore down several wide stair cases over screams from the workers of various purposes. He tore through the wall of another half of the building to the next with little regard to those they were creating chaos for. With speed and precision, Smith avoided the employers and employees.

Will started to laugh as he got the hang of it as Smith continued this strategy with great results. Smith flew forward into the direction of the nearest corridor. Will looked down at the screen then his eyes flashed open; there was only forty-three minutes to launch. Will's heart was racing with confusion, shock, and dismay. What was his family remotely thinking making the decision to leave him behind? Will was trembling as his smile faded appearing to be scared that was evident to Robot's sensitive mind wave equipment.

Smith made his way to the building then tore through another building and sped the car down the basement. He caused the car to come to a pause, slid down the compartment in front of the boy then handed it to Will, and pressed a button. Smith gestured on toward the space ahead of the vehicle.

"Does my family care about me?"

Smith frowned.

"No, really."

Smith rolled his eyes then put a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Doctor Smith is indicating that now is not the time to have angst issues."

"Yes, it IS!" Will roared.

"Your family are morons trying to do the right thing trying to draw him out." Robot repeated what were on the older man's mind. "William, sometimes we pull heartstrings for reasons that hurt others. Sometimes it is for their own good."

"But this close to the launch? It's like they've given up waiting for me."

Smith puckered his lips with a sigh.

"They have not."

"You don't know my family, Doctor Smith. We haven't been a family for the last three years. We have only been acting a family because YOU LET ME GO."

Smith leaned forward, pressing his forehead against the steering wheel, grimacing.

"Your family is rectifying a simple error, William."

"Why don't you talk yourself?"

"Because his vocal cords are very delicate and they have yet to heal from the repair operation by the nanobots." Robot paused. "And also, it would be less meaningful with a hoarse voice. I imagine it to be grand, sophisticated, and quite poignant."

Will turned toward Robot.

"Thanks, Robot." Will said with a small fond smile then shifted toward Smith. "What is going to happen to you?"

"Get to Ganymede. Plans change." Smith shrugged with a small smile. "You should go."

"Is there a way in?"

Smith looked toward Robot then back toward Will.

"That bubble headed ninny should do."

Will nodded.

"Okay. Is that it? Never going to see each other again?"

"I can only part this advice; we both have second chances to lead a different life from the one that we were forced to be in from the Major's half-assed critical thinking, William." Robot's voice relayed the man's reply. "We just need to savor that everything will be fine. Perfectly fine. And we must make sure that it is." He flipped a hand up above the steering wheel then lowered it back on the edge. "I am already a monster---"

"But you don't get to mutate into one." Will cut him off.

Smith somberly nodded that was becoming slowly a small smile.

"Or look like one." Smith agreed as he looked around searching for potential guards of police as Robot relayed his words. "We may see the other again; different circumstance, different planets -- hopefully ---," Smith shrugged, half-optimistic, sheepishly. "different need to be in the other's orbit."

Will nodded, turning his attention away

"Okay. . ." Will's voice was quiet. "good-bye, Doctor Smith."

"Adieu." It came out hoarsely behind Will as Robot came out of the opened back end. 

Robot and Will made a bolt for it in the path ahead of Smith then he looked back and rolled the vehicle backwards as the headlights to his car behind the duo shrunk in size. Will followed after Robot making his way to the upper floors as Robot took the stairs once Will had lost track of him wearing a oxygen mask. Robot made it to the upper floor of Mission Control then wheeled in to the hub of the facility finding the core group of Robinsons in their space suits staring at the screens that showed one image in particular of Smith being taken in by several Military Police. 

"Will Robinson is rushing to the Jupiter 1."

The Robinsons turned toward Robot then their eyes flashed open and they make a bolt for it leaving only a skeletal crew behind at Mission Control.

"Good job, Robot, playing your part so easily." The general said.

"What part?" Robot asked. 

"Luring Smith?" The general said. 

"Negative, it was his family leaving that prompted Doctor Smith's arrival." Robot clarified. "I was not informed of this operation."

"I was." Bill's voice came from across as he sat in a chair within the dark corner of the room.

Robot twirled toward Bill who was smoking a cigar from behind him.

"Check mate." Bill said. "Doctor Smith will be fine." he blew another puff. "Asides to being unnerved, upset, and quite angry being caught."

"This does not compute, what part did I play in?" Robot asked.

"Robot, we hacked the television set with a Trojan horse." Was the reply from the general. "Bill made you the Trojan Horse."

Robot wheeled back.

"Are you going to tell him?" Robot asked.

"No?" Bill shook his head as he raised his brows at the thought of telling his counterpart of what had happened. "They were going to leave tonight anyway and supposed to. John didn't want to go without him and threatened to send his family in if they weren't all aboard." He became bitter at the thought. "If I were a kid, I would have admired him, but I don't. I cannot worship a lame excuse for a father."

Robot was silent.

"Will, you have sowed seeds of angst with your counterpart about his family loving him." Robot said.

"They'll tell Will it was their idea, not mine." He pointed toward himself. "I told them they were planting those seeds! I told them! I told them and they refused to discard their idea!"

Robot looked upon the younger man.

"I protested for Will and nobody listened to me," then his voice grew full of bitterness, anger, and resentment as he approached the machine. "just. like. _last._ time."

"I detect you are smoking a therapeutic drug." Robot said. "Is this beneficiary?"

"This week has been giving me _anxiety_." Bill replied, trembling, emotionally. "I don't like watching Doctor Smith be arrested on live television."

"Look, Robot. . . " The general said. "They won't tell him that he has been arrested. All they will say is that Doctor Smith escaped."

"It would be better if they told him, General." Bill replied then released another puff of the cannabis. "Keeping secrets back from him is going to make a younger, furious, and outraged version of me."

"What's he going to do?" The general asked. "Throw a tantrum?"

"Yes." Bill confirmed. "Then go after him."

"It's only been one week and two days with him in that man's hold." The general said. "A kidnapped victim -- abducted twice -- doesn't go back after the kidnapper."

Bill glared back at the general.

"I know what I was like when I was him. I know what it was like not to be listened to. I know what it was like not to have a friend who met my intelligence."

Bill silently puffed, withdrew the cigarette, and sighed lowering his head shaking the cigarette. He lifted his attention up toward the older man with a long determined look. The words were enough to silence the man who only winced. The words reminder dug a open wound for the general's anger/pity/fury at the unacceptable loss of the Jupiter 2. 

"General, if you have _any_ remote interest in making sure that Doctor Smith stays planet side for his prison term then you better send Robot in that ship and adjust the course for his weight."

"Will Robinson does not need me to protect him." Robot acknowledged, fondly, upon the younger man. "He can do all that himself on another planet surrounded by the right people."

"Okay! Okay! Okay!" The general announced as he shook his hands. "Stop ganging up on me!"

"We are six feet away from you, general." Bill reminded, puzzled, as Robot bobbed his helm up.

The general folded his arms with a scowl.

"Why do I have to be the one stuck with a madhouse like this?" The general asked.

"Because you care about colonizing space, General." Bill replied then looked up toward Robot. "Take care of him."

"I will." Robot wheeled over toward the younger man's side then placed a claw on the side of his arm. "You," Robot's hook clenched his arm. "heal."

Bill smiled then patted on Robot's claws.

"I will." Bill said. "Like to come to the house with me for one last time?"

"Negative." Robot replied. "I have . . . things . . . to collect."

"Alright." Bill withdrew his hand. "Good night."

Bill walked on out of Mission Control then Robot shifted toward the general.

"General." Robot said.

"Robot." The general said.

"Will Bill say good-bye to Doctor Smith?" Robot asked.

"Given these last events, I don't think so." The general turned his attention off the direction that the younger man had gone in. "Do you?"

"I do not." Robot said as his helm whirred. "I do not. . ." Robot emulated the sound of a sigh. "I need a ride."

"I'll give you one." The general said. "Least we can do for. . ." he winced. "Using you that way."

"Accepted." Robot said.

The general and Robot walked on from Mission Control as the camera showed the Robinsons hugging Will in a group hug and everything seemed that it was going to be fine.

Yet, the paradox that was broken was crueler than the last as the dark prison planet had rough conditions, tall bluffs, stormy clouds, swamps, and barren sections of barren dark cracked land that appeared to be made of stone with hostile lifeforms that could only be found in nightmares. It was crueler in one aspect; there was only a machine and man working together to survive instead of a orphan, a machine, and a man. With that, Robot and Doctor Smith survived it all against the chaos of the other prisoners.


End file.
